Queens Grace
by Renne Michaels
Summary: After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for Loki under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki, but Stark Tower is.
1. Chapter 1 - Calm before the storm?

_After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. 82,000 words so far. Rating may change to FrostIron. Slow build. _

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The Memory Loss Midgard Loki thingy has been done before, and done well I might add. But I wanted to see where I could go with it since I was taking a break from my Desperate Measures series until Loki 2 Dark World to came out. Who knew it was going to take on a life of its own and refuse to end? This is what I get for not wanting my Desperate series to go all AU on me.

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Chapter 1 – The calm before the storm?

It had started off as such a nice evening. Well, perhaps nice is not quite the right word for Tony Stark being forced to grace a charity function with his presence, especially when it wasn't even a Stark International function. Okay, his evening thus far had sucked. A charity cause he could care less about, boring people and bad booze. But hey, when compared to a surprise visit by the Asgardian Royal family he'd been having a wonderful time.

OoooO

Distinctive ring tones are a god send, Tony thought as he silenced his phone without even looking at it. While Jarvis had several ring tones of his own, the one that Tony had just received from him was not one of his emergency ones.

Replacing the phone in his pocket; Tony smoothed down the jacket of his new David August suit. The fine black material was so rich it almost glowed. Just as he was adjusting his crisp white cuffs in preparation to get back to some serious smarming, his phone rang again.

Jarvis.

Again.

Same ignorable ring tone. Tony smiled at the blonde in front of him, with perhaps just a bit more teeth than he normally showed as he again silenced his phone.

"So Marilyn—"

"Maria," said those luscious apricot glazed lips, with just the tiniest hint of tightening in irritation for Tony, again not using the woman's correct name. Her blonde hair, natural for a wonder, rippled as she tossed it back with one hand, not accidently shifting and highlighting some impressive parts of her anatomy. Then her big brown eyes deliberately softened as she tried to regain the mood that had originally captured the billionaire's interest.

Said billionaire, didn't really want to be here. Charity events were Pepper's gigs not his. But if Tony has to attend boring charity functions, complete with bad booze, he at least wants to be left alone during this one bright spot in his evening. Melis-, er Maria has a rocking body that her thin champagne sheath dress shows it off to perfection. As if she didn't know it.

And standing in front of this display of a proposed research new wing, with the various lights washing down from all different directions… Let us just say that her pale thin dress was not leaving anything to the engineer's imagination. Which is quite the accomplishment, since Tony has a really good imagination and can imagine quite a lot. He mentally sent kudos to the maintenance and lighting crews for making Martha's dress almost disappear.

"So Mister Stark-" Maria purred.

"Tony. Please, call me Tony."

Maria swept her lashes down, before peering up mischievously from underneath them, "All right then… Tony-"

It was contrived of course, but hey, he could still admire it couldn't he? He was just leaning in to catch whatever that dark sultry voice was going to say next, when his phone went off for the third time. This time it was one of Jarvis' message tones.

For something that was not on the emergency notification list, his AI was being pretty fucking annoying this evening. Showing still more teeth, Tony gritted out, "One moment." As he quickly dug his phone out of his pocket and shut the damn thing off.

"Now, where were we," he asked empting his glass and handing it off to a passing server. Tony knew he might need both hands pretty soon, so it paid to think ahead.

He and Monica had just reset their positions, him interested and appreciative of the view, her breathlessly excited to be within ten feet of an unmarried billionaire and were preparing to move on to the next step of the dance when he heard his name being called.

Tony groaned to himself.

Pepper, calling his name was striding towards them as fast as her tight fishtail gown allowed.

"Tony! There you are, thank goodness I found you," she said handing him her phone. "Jarvis really needs to talk to you, he said it's important."

While Tony normally would have appreciated how well Pepper's royal blue, off the shoulder gown matched her eyes, right now it only drew his attention to the fact that those narrowed blue eyes were fastened on the hand that was stroking Tony's arm.

Rolling his eyes, Tony slipped away from the blonde fondling his arm and took the phone off of Pepper.

_I swear I am going to update Jarvis' protocols before the week is out_, he thought savagely.

"Excuse me ladies," he said with a charming if false smile as he slipped away and headed towards the hallway.

"Well that was fucking awkward," Tony muttered to himself, walking another few yards before he leaned disgustedly against the wall.

"Jarvis, I swear I'm going to donate you to a public library. Why in the hell are you bothering me?"

"I'm sorry sir, but you really need to return to the tower immediately. It's an emergency."

"Well it can't be a break-in, fire, explosion or theft. You have a different number and ring tone to report real emergencies don't you?" He said testily.

Not that Tony thinks that the explosion thing is going to happen ever again. He now makes sure to turn everything before he leaves the lab. He also now has a standing rule for Jarvis to double check and notify him if he forgets.

The blonde chick, Marcia? Maria? Whatever the hell her name was, stepped out into the hall and glared at him. She threw a furious glare his way before she spun on her heel and stomped off in the other direction. As aggravated as Tony was about caught being 'more than polite' with Blondie, he can't help but allow a smirk to tug at one corner of his mouth. Most women wearing heels that high can't stomp. And Tony is pretty sure that if Blondie knew how it made her ass ripple, she wouldn't be doing it either.

"No Sir, you have company at the tower." Jarvis informed him, recalling his attention.

"Seriously Jarvis? That does not have an emergency tone… Because why? Work with me here … Because it's not a fucking emergency. I'm busy being a good little corporate drone to make Pepper happy, which your insistence on talking to me didn't help by the way."

"I do apologize sir, but this-"

"Did I forget to meet someone tonight?"

"No sir-"

"Well then just then tell them to make an appointment and come back another day. I'm busy trying not to piss Pepper off any more than I just did." Since blonde chick was gone, Tony eased back towards the door leading to the event, looking for Pepper.

Pepper was not hard to find, her hair, dress and height made sure of that. She was currently waving her hand, directing the attention of an older couple to something on a nearby table. As the couple looked towards the table display, she glanced up at Tony.

Damn.

Tony could see the fury that Pepper was feeling as she looked at him for the briefest moment. But worse she had to bottle her temper up, that was never, in his experience, a good thing. As mad as Pepper was, by the time the couple turned back towards her she was once again wearing her smiling corporate face.

Okay. Now Tony was really pissed.

"Oh, and Jarvis, just for the record, I lost all my good boy points for even coming to this damn event because you made Pepper come find me for this stupid call. So I am not happy with you."

"Again sir, I apologize. However Thor Odinson, his mother Queen Frigga, Loki Odinson, a few guards and several other Asgardians are on the penthouse terrace. The queen would like to talk to you immediately."

Tony's head reared back; totally pushing the 'Pepper Incident' out of his mind he gave the phone a confused look.

Okaaaay.

That's weird.

Thor he could maybe see coming to visit him. But Thor's mother? And Loki?

What the hell?

A little day trip by the Asgard First Family? Complete with the psychotic war criminal little brother? Accompanied by a gaggle of Space Viking hangers-on? "So they want to talk to the Avengers and SHIELD right?"

"No sir. I did offer to call SHIELD, but the queen was most empathic that she wished to speak to you and you alone. You personally sir, not as an Avenger." Jarvis told him, dashing any hopes that Tony was going to be able to have someone else take the lead on whatever shit storm was about to occur.

Tony sighed, scrubbing a hand across his face before running his fingers distractedly through his hair.

"Crap Jarvis, this is going to be bad, I just know it." Rubbing his neck tiredly, he briefly considered pretending this call had never happened, hanging up Pepper's phone and taking the damn battery out so Jarvis couldn't call her back.

_Why me?_

"Damn.

Alright Jarvis, let them into the living room, make 'em comfortable and tell them I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

"Very good sir, I shall do so immediately. I will also direct Dummy to bring up a gurney from the medical wing so the younger Mister Odinson does not bleed on your couch.

"What?!"

_Okay… _he thought_, this is going to be real ugly. Of course anytime alien space Vikings, my couch and blood are concerned it couldn't help but be… So yeah. Real ugly. _

Tony shook his head, "You know what? I don't want to know, I'll be right there. Call Happy and have him meet me at the front door, he can come back and get Pepper later."

He walked over towards the group that his CEO was talking to.

"Oh and Jarvis? You get to explain it to Pepper," Tony said loud enough for her to hear as he handed her back her phone.

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have kudo'd and bookmarked in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	2. Chapter 2 - Home again, home again

_Frigga explains the plan, Tony is less than thrilled and wants no parts of it. Tony learns that Einherjars are really big scary dudes with really long swords._

_OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO_

_After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. 82,000 words so far. Rating may change to FrostIron. Slow build. _

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**Chapter 2 – Home again, home again**

Tony stripped off his suit coat and tie as he exited the elevator and walked through the waiting area leading to the penthouse level. During the ride back to his tower he had taken the opportunity to calm his nerves with some good scotch. Fortunately the ride was just long enough to allow it to kick in.

"So, Jarvis… anything happing that I need to know about in there?" he asked as he tossed his clothes over a chair right inside the front hall of his apartment. He could just hear the faintest traces of conversation from the main living room.

"Well sir, from what they are saying, the younger Mister Odinson is pretty badly injured." Jarvis told him quietly.

"Why are they here though? Have they said?" Tony asked as he laid his sunglasses on a table and smoothed down his ruffled brown hair in the hall mirror hanging above it.

"Yes sir, apparently Odin Allfath-"

"Friend Stark!" boomed Thor walking into the hall and clapping both his hands on Tony's shoulders.

"Whoa! Point Break, easy there. No dislocated bones please." Tony said as he tried unsuccessfully to slide out from the thunder god's hands.

While Tony was not the most observant of people when he was drinking, even he could see that the god looked tired. He had shadows under his eyes and didn't look like he had slept in a month.

"Hey buddy, what's going on? Why are you guys all here? Please don't tell me there is a detour on the astral highway that passes my tower." Tony asked hiding a wince as Thor tightened his grip in what only a god would consider a comforting manner.

Glancing down at Thor's outfit he asked, "What's with the all the blood?"

_Oh crap. Who in the hell even knew that Thor had a 'kicked puppy' face. _

"Hey! Sparky. Come on buddy, buck up okay? You look like someone just stole your woobie." Thor looked slightly puzzled as Tony's security blanket joke flew over his head. But then he just slumped a bit, running a hand through his messy blonde locks in exasperation.

"Come Man of Iron, my mother wishes to speak to you on a matter of utmost importance," Thor said sadly as his other hand slid down to Tony's bicep and the god proceeded to tug him towards the living room.

Okay then.

Tony was not surprised when he entered his living room, after all Jarvis had told him that Thor and the queen were traveling with an entourage. However, he was perhaps dismayed at the makeup and general demeanor of the large group of people in his home. Not a one of them looked happy. Hell, not a one of them looked anything but downright pissed.

_Look at the size of those freaking swords, the person holding a sword that large becomes a bit of back ground noise really, _he mused.

Not that the four guys standing in his living room could even fade into the background if they wanted to. First is would be impossible to overlook those huge hunks of shiny metal strapped to them. The guards were all at least as tall as Thor and almost as muscled. Couple that with the Lord of the Rings armor, huge glittering spear, two foot freaking tall ceremonial helm and these guys were either a cosplay joke… or too fine for primetime. Two were standing guard near the medical gurney and two were generally flanking an elegant faded blonde woman who he supposed was Thor's mom. As soon as Tony entered the room the guard's eyes latched on to him.

From the hard eyed expressions on their faces, Tony was not leaning towards classifying them being some sort of cosplay joke.

Thor may have had god like strength and be determined to immediately drag Tony over to his mother, but Tony was equally determined to stop at his bar first. In the game of Scotch vs Norse God, Scotch wins.

Tony wanted a drink. Tony wanted his bracelets. Tony wanted to stay far away from those damn big swords as he possibly could.

"So, your majesty, welcome to my humble abode. Can I offer you a drink?" Tony asked as thunder god escorted his mother over to the bar area.

Thor was not the only Asgardian looking like five miles of bad road. While the queen was quite good looking, in an older middle aged, MILF way, she also looked extremely tired and stressed. Really, really stressed with circles under her eyes, ashen skin and a small muscle twitch at her temple every now and then.

Both gods shook their head no in regard to the drink. So after taking a sip of his, Tony slid on his bracelets all sneaky like and then asked, "So. Your Majesty, what can I do for you?"

Hands loosely clasped in front of her, she proceeded to tell him.

OoooO

"Well fuck me." Tony said in a toneless voice, frankly astonished at the plan that had been laid out before him.

Both Asgardians narrowed their eyes at him, but then Thor leaned down and loudly whispered to his mother, "It's a very improper expression of disbelief… Not an invitation for personal relations that would frankly be insulting to you and your rank mother." He glared meaningfully at Tony, "Starkson is a bit crude in his speech, but believe me, he means you no disrespect."

Tony was more than a little alarmed, lighting flashed in the otherwise clear sky temporarily washing out all the color in the penthouse, He hastened to apologize over the loud rumble of thunder that rattled the penthouse's windows.

"No. No, of course not. Sorry, your majesty… sometimes I don't express myself as well as I should"

Not that he normally gave a rats-ass how he spoke to people, no matter who they were. However Tony supposed that he should take a bit more care in the future when speaking to the mother of a large blonde capable of electrocuting him or smashing him into a thin smear on the floor… or both.

"Ah, disbelief?" The queen's brow cleared. "No, I assure you Son of Stark, that all of my words have been truthful. I was truly distraught until my son told me of the security in your tower, the vigilance of your watcher, the cleverness of your chatelaine and the loyalty of your metal servants." The queen's tired face lit up a bit as she smiled at him. "My son also told me that you were the only one of his Midgardian shield brothers to extend a kindness to my Loki when he was injured."

Tony wanted to tear his hair out.

One fucking drink was all it took to give the Space Viking Queen the idea that he would make a good babysitter slash jailor for her crazy assed son. Well that and his tower he supposed, and Jarvis, and Pepper… How the hell did Point Break even explained Dummy, Butterfingers and You to his mother? Tony couldn't even imagine… but still.

Damn.

Who knew that Thor would fricking throw him under the bus with all of this. Fury would have a fit if he even knew Rock of Ages was on the planet, not to mention what Pepper was going to say would say.

Tony looked forlornly down at his now empty glass.

"You sure I can't get you guys anything?" Tony asked as he topped off his drink. "No? You sure?"

Okay then. Getting ice to stall for a few moments, Tony used the mirror behind the bar to check out what was going on with the rest of his uninvited guests.

Some scary old broad, who had two nurse looking chicks assisting her, was doing something vaguely medical to Loki. It was difficult to decide who was the unhappiest of that trio, the old scary doc looking lady who appeared to be cleaning wounds, the blonde holding a big bowl of steaming water or the dishwater blonde on the other side who held a tray that the bloody cleansing cloths were being deposited on. The guards standing at the head and foot of Loki's stretcher divided their time between glaring at Tony and glaring at the unmoving god on the stretcher.

_Asgardians must not sit without an invitation,_ Tony thought, _I have nine miles of sofas and everyone is standing. _

A few of the queen's handmaidens were standing near the other two guards over by the terrace door. One of the ladies was holding a large bag of some sort. Not a one of them looked happy for some reason, not the guards, not the chicks.

_Oh well join the club then, because I am definitely not happy either. _

It wasn't like Tony was even sorry that Loki had been almost beaten to death… twice. So… Okay, maybe it wasn't right for people chained up and unable to defend themselves to be beaten, but honestly the jerk kinda deserved it. Not that the Asgardians who did it gave a flip about damage and destruction on earth, they were mad about their rainbow bridge being destroyed and the whole taking over the throne attempt.

Which may have accounted for more than a little of the guilt that Rudolf's mom and brother were experiencing, since according to what they told Tony, Thor is the one who actually destroyed the bridge and the whole 'usurped throne thing' apparently didn't happen as the Queen put Loki on the throne as regent, so she could spend more time with her sick husband. Of course Thor's BFF's who jumped to the wrong conclusion and spread that nasty rumor that Reindeer Games did usurp the throne didn't help either. This of course set up a confrontation with Thor and Bag of Cats who was feeling more than a little unstable as he had just found the day before he was adopted. From a faraway land that was universally hated by all Asgardians.

_Nice. _

Still none of this was Tony's problem and besides he's a genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist. He was definitely not a warden, prison guard or rehabilitation therapist for a deranged Norse god.

"You know, as much as I would like to help, I can't, the main reason being that Fury would never allow it." Tony said more than a bit untruthfully, since the main reason really was that he flat didn't want to be within twenty miles of that window tossing freak.

Not that he wanted to come right out and admit that to an over protective big hammer swinging brother and a distraught mom with her own hit squad.

Not that they were making him nervous mind you, the two by psycho prince were merely glaring at him menacingly, it was the other two, with the increasingly hostile expressions that were slowly shifting closer and that worried him. Eyeing them uneasily Tony turned to the queen, "Ah your majesty…"

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have kudo'd and bookmarked in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	3. Chapter 3 - An offer that you shouldn't

Summary: After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 3 – An offer that you shouldn't refuse **

Queen Frigga waved a placating hand and the two advancing guards stepped backwards to their original position, allowing Tony's heart rate to return to normal.

"Son of Stark, Thor tells me you are a craftsman of great renown. I would like to see your workshop," said Frigga kindly but with eyes boring into Tony as if looking for something important. It was a friendly look, but so focused it made him nervous.

"Umm. Lab. I do science, not wood working. I call it a lab."

"Very well, I would like to see your lab."

"Well you see, I don't normally let just anyone down there, so—"

"Fortunately, I am not just anyone; I am the Queen of Asgard. If you would Anthony Starkson," she tilted her head giving him an amused look. "Let us go visit your lab."

"Now."

_Okay then._

Tony wasn't quite sure what to think. Frigga was part '_Queen of England Don't mess with me I have armed guards_' and part '_Anthony Stark you listen to your mother and get over here right now_'.

"You know, there is nothing I would like more than giving you a tour of my lab. Really, I'd love it; it would be the high light of my evening, honest. But the thing is…." Tony trailed off; he could feel the lies and evasions withering on his lips as Frigga regarded him steadily.

Tony wondered at his sudden reluctance to continue. It wasn't like he hadn't made with the bullshit before. He in fact he normally loved the feeling of knowing, just knowing that he was winding up important powerful people and there was nothing they could do about it. He loved knowing that he wouldn't be stopped because his position, genius or money protected him. Often he infuriated them to the point of screaming and or violence, sometimes when he was really on a roll, both.

Unfortunately for some reason his normal line of irritating deflecting patter wasn't working this evening. Tony wasn't sure if it was just that she was a goddess or queen or if it was just the mother in her, but something was making his tongue turn to lead, stopping his normal line of bullshit in mid-flow.

"Now if you please." Her voice was very firm, and Tony couldn't help but notice the uneasy shifting from the two huge guards she had waved back a few minutes earlier.

"Okay. It's a bit messy, but okay, come on, I'll show it to you."

"Thor, you will stay here and keep and watch over your brother," Frigga said in a Mom-Voice that invited no disagreement.

Trailed by the guards and handmaidens who had been standing by the terrace, Tony reluctantly escorted the queen down to his lab.

"Umm, perhaps if they waited here?" Tony asked anxiously as they exited the elevator. "Some of the stuff down here is a bit fragile or dangerous or," Tony shrugged, "frankly both. It's best not to have too many people wandering through the lab if they aren't familiar with it.

Frigga inclined her head in agreement and waved her entourage to a standstill a few paces away from the elevator and then followed Tony into the lab.

"Mrs. Odin—"

"Frigga please, or Queen Frigga if you must. I do not at this moment want to hear the name of the man who could not keep my son safe." Frigga said, disgust saturating every syllable.

_Okay,_ Tony thought, _little bit of a problem in the Casa de Odin._

"Please your majesty, sit down," Tony said waving her towards his own station chair.

Frigga smiled at him, and for perhaps the first time since he met her, her expression seemed to lighten a bit. "Thank you son of Stark, but if you would not mind, I would prefer to walk around your… lab as we speak."

"My name is Tony, well actually it's Anthony. I…" he faltered for a moment at her slightly puzzled expression. "Tony is what I prefer, Anthony is okay if you have to use it, Stark in a pinch but please no more 'son of' stuff." While he did try to stay impassive, from the look he was now receiving from Frigga, Tony was well aware of that his distaste for the word 'son' was pretty evident to her.

"As you would… Anthony." Frigga said, taking his arm and continuing her exploration of his lab.

Oh well, at least it wasn't Starkson.

Tony didn't offer any comment on the items they were walking past, but he did briefly explain anything that caught her eye.

Despite not wanting anything to do with Loki, he was curious.

"So exactly how many years are we talking about here?" Tony asked, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "Punishment wise I mean."

"Loki's initial sentence was to be beaten in public," Frigga did not even try to restrain the flickers of anger and betrayal that flitted across her features, "have his magic bound and be imprisoned for one hundred and one years." Frigga irritably brushed a hand down the finely woven, richly embroidered beige gown she was wearing, stopping just short of an area filled with intricate design and unfortunately several blood stains.

"Initial?"

"Oh yes… Son… Anthony. Initial. After serving time in prison he was to make restitution to Asgard and her people by serving them in public works projects for the next four hundred years. His magic would still be bound and he would only be allowed to use it at the direct command of the King of Asgard. Leaving him essentially at the mercy of whatever protection Odin decided to provide."

_Well, adopted or not, it was pretty apparent where Loki learned how to sneer. _

"Okay… So why me?" Tony asked as they headed over to the suits on display.

"You can provide security to keep watch over him to satisfy Odin, without guards or others that can further abuse him. I am willing to pay for my son's care and safety."

"Well I'm not sure what Point Break… er… Thor told you about me, but I don't need your money, I have more than enough …" Frigga's voice rolled right over his, as if he was not her only audience.

"The All Father may have allowed his council to pass this sentence on his son, but as his Queen and wife I can take it upon myself to see to the details of the sentence." Her hands tightened as her polite mask slipped a bit, both expression and voice becoming a bit fierce. "Especially since in just recent events, he has failed not once, but three times to keep my son safe."

_Yeah, okay. But Frigga wasn't the only pissed about recent events. _

"Ah. Well, let's be frank, your little Loki threw me through a window to plummet to my death, okay… so I didn't die, but he didn't know I wouldn't when he threw me. So what makes you think I want anything to do with him, let alone want to protect him from all the err… earthgardians who would want to get at him? Which there are a lot of by the way." Tony asked, surprised that despite what he had just said to her to see a warm, almost motherly affection on Frigga's face as she looked at him, her lips curved in a soft fond smile, the type of which hadn't been directed at him since he was a kid.

Tony was uncomfortably aware of a warm feeling in his chest which had nothing to do with the booze he had so recently imbibed.

"Besides which, I am an Earthling, and will be lucky to live another thirty years tops, less if you believe my doctor, don't you think you should make a more permanent arrangement?" Not that Tony was trying to discourage her…

_Oh. Wait. Yeah, he was._

"Starkso-, Anthony, the person who threw you out a window, was not my son." Her face wrinkled up in thought, "And there are several ways to extend a mortal's life span, while not common, we have occasionally had Midgardian servitors."

_Ouch._

"Well he certainly did throw-" Frigga held up a hand, almost touching his lips to stop him from speaking.

"Loki is being punished for a deed that occurred on Asgard, not what happened on Midgard. The All Father and his council do not hold him accountable for those. And while the story behind his invasion of Midgard is not permitted to be spoken of in detail, it was regrettably caused by decisions made by Odin." She sighed heavily, "Some recently of course, but also decisions made many years ago which came back to haunt our family." Frigga worried her lip a moment, before continuing tiredly, "Although, I do wish that Loki had chosen a different way to cope."

Tony, who had been just standing there, watching her, started to rock slightly, his hard soled dress shoes making small tapping noises on the polished concrete floor. "Three times huh?" He closed his eyes moment thinking, as the slight frown that had not left his face since his leaving the party deepened. "Recently? Ah. The fight on the rainbow express that Thor had mentioned?"

"That is part of it, yes." Frigga agreed with a bit of a hiss, reaching up to with one hand to press the side of her neck, "His father has never understood that Loki is not Thor and dealing with him as he would Thor will not work. Never has the All Father understood this, no matter how many times he has been proved wrong over the years."

_Okay, got a bit of heat there. Loki Mommy is not happy with Loki Daddy, that's plain to see. But still… _

"Um,.. You know, no offence, but Loki's a pretty big boy. Might not be entirely Odin… The All Dad's job at this point in time."

"Really?" Frigga struck him with a chilling glare, arms sweeping up to fold in front of her, in a plainly defensive posture. "Time moves differently among the realms, Loki's father, who will most likely live several thousand more of your years, is over six times older than Loki. Loki reached his minor majority during the time he lost in the void. He is many years away from his major majority when he will be able to officially join the crown council or be appointed to any official position."

_Wow, _Tony thought stunned_, totally did not see that one coming. _

"Wait? Let me get this straight," Tony asked incredulously, throwing out an arm in agitation, "Invasion Boy just got his learner's permit and we were the first place he visited while out joy riding?"

Still defensive, but continuing in a more conciliatory tone, Frigga said, "Please don't misunderstand. We live a long time Anthony, we try to make sure that our young people have out grown all their rash foolishness before their actions are truly considered those of an adult. All young boys go off to war, but while both Thor and Loki have spent many centuries of your time defending Asgard, neither of them is even considered old enough to officially marry without our approval."

"You're shitting me, right?"

Frigga's brows knitted a bit in confusion at Tony's use of this phrase.

"So… What was the deal with the horse then?"

Her eyes narrowed and her tone became glacially cold. "A youthful indiscretion that occurred as a result of Loki trying to fix a problem for Asgard. A problem that my son should not have had to deal with alone in the first place," She spat. "Nothing more I assure you."

_Oh. _

Well that certainly was a touchy subject for Loki momma. Tony wondered if Odin had got his ass reamed out over that incident too, although he thought he was starting to see a trend here.

While he had no doubt that Thor was the kind of kid who was called into the principal's office on a regular basis for fighting and roughhousing. Thunder Daddy, who had most likely done the same in his youth, would understand, cut him some slack and occasionally discipline Hammer when he absolutely had to.

But, Tony was willing to bet big money that Momma's little Trickster, was the kind of kid who had the FBI show up at his door, no doubt due to some overly exuberant hacking to tag 'I was here' in high security government files. Stuff like that would most likely make Poppa Odin flip his shit. Not only would the King of the Gods not understand why the kid would want to do it, he probably would have no idea how to stop the kid from doing it again. And as Tony knew from personal experience, that could get ugly.

Normal parental problem perhaps, but Poppa Odin did have the major advantage of having his very own dungeon. Something Tony was sure his father had wished for on numerous occasions. Something Tony was very glad Howard did not have, especially after having seen the broken mischief maker.

"Midgardians youths go through a period time thinking they are immortal and unbreakable, and they know better than anyone else what is going on. Is this not correct?"

"Yeah, most of them," Tony said, thinking how some Earthgardians, not to mention any names or anything, stay in that mindset a lot longer than others. Or didn't outgrow it at all.

"Mostly until reality sets in, usually in their late teens or early twenties," Tony told her. "Plowing a car into a telephone pole, or something else stupid, usually works to snap them out of it." The engineer elaborated, thinking of the numerous wake-up calls, many of them automobile or alcohol related that he and his classmates had experienced.

"Imagine how long this period of youthful delusion must last for beings that actually 'are' almost immortal. Beings who can live up to twenty thousand of your years rather than only a hundred years at best. Beings who can bounce back from almost any type of injury, often with no healers aid at all."

She regarded Tony steadily as he considered this.

"Okay," Tony conceded slowly, "I can see that the stupid phase might last a bit longer."

Both were lost in thought for a moment. Then Tony lifted his chin defiantly, taking a step closer to Frigga, almost brushing against her personal space.

_Geeze, she wasn't even wearing heels and she was still slightly taller than him. Damn tall Asgardians, even their moms were freakishly tall,_ he groused internally.

"However, not trying to be disobliging… Well, yeah, actually I am trying to be disobliging. I still have no intention of running a prison for your wayward boy."

They stared at each other for a long minute, before Frigga shifted her focus to the display storage area on the far wall. "Your metal suits are made of iron?" she asked in a polite almost social tone.

Change of topic?

_Why? _

Tony was suspicious, her kid is bleeding all over my tower and she wants to talk about my suits? It's not even like she was a fan or anything.

_Whatever._

"Not really, the first one, the prototype was, well it was steel, not iron, but close enough I guess. Now they are made from a gold-titanium alloy." He grimaced, "And I am experimenting with a titanium beryllium geodesic alloy. But that one is still a ways off. And it may not work anyway," Tony concluded with a shrug.

Frigga began drifting closer to the display, stopping beside a relatively, for Tony's work shop, uncluttered work bench.

"Indeed?" Frigga pointed and made a graceful motion that had her handmaiden, who like the guards beside her had been watching them intently, hurrying over carrying a large black silk bag. At the queen's direction, she set it on a nearby work bench with a solid thud. Frigga waved the woman back towards the elevator doors with the others.

At this location, her attendants were even more out of earshot than when they had first started speaking. The queen then motioned towards the bag. "Please open it Starkson."

"Please, call me Tony, he said as he turned to the bag. Not that Tony really cared what was in the bag, but hey, he was interested to see what a tall, blonde, Space Viking Queen would try to bribe him with.

_He was curious okay? It happens._

Tony, untied a heavy silk cording that was holding the bag shut on one end. There was a large metal chest of some sort inside the bag, a large heavy chest. As he struggled to lift the box and slide it out of the bag, Tony was struck at just how freaking strong, even the average run of the mill Asgardian chicks were.

_Seriously, stupidly strong. _

Tony was willing to bet that even the more mature, Momma Odinwife would be able to whip his ass with no problem what so ever. At least as long as Tony wasn't wearing his suit. Heck, give her a sword or even a baseball bat and Tony might not even want to let her try it if he did have his suit on.

Once he had lifted the chest, Frigga came to his assistance and tugged the bag away from it. The uncovered box was an intricately carved and embossed silver green metal of some sort. At first Tony thought it the green luster might be some sort of coating, but after careful, if surreptitious examination of the engraved areas and a small nick he found, he was inclined to think the color might be a property of whatever strange alloy it was made from.

It took a lot to dumbfound Tony Stark. But a insanely heavy chest made of an unknown metal, he had to admit, that just might to it.

_Okay? What the fuck is this? _He wondered frowning up at a smug Space Viking Queen.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have kudo'd and bookmarked in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	4. Chapter 4 - Bribes are wonderful things

Chapter Summary: Frigga has Tony pegged. Bruce Banner is summoned. Tony really hates magic.

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I just want to say I wrote this months before any mention of ships in any movie you might or might not be interested in. Yay Me! I'm psychic or psychotic or one of those words that start with a P.

After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest.

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**Chapter 4 -Bribes**

Frigga reached out and stroked an exquisitely manicured finger along the top of the chest. "This is made with Adamantite, a Dwarf metal of great beauty and strength. Lovely in its pure state like this of course, however, it is more useful as a catalyst alloy with other types of metals, creating such as items as the energy absorbing Cavorite alloy used for the hulls of our self-powered sky ships." She met and held Tony's sharp inquiring look as she reached into a sleeve pocket and pulled out a small key which she held up between them.

"Open it," she breathed, watching him intently.

Tony turned the key and slowly opened the chest. That the trays inside were awash with jewelry was not surprising. What was amazing was that with just a glance; Tony knew he could only identify about half of the metal, stones and materials being used in the jewelry's construction. Once piece that caught Tony's eye was a lovely hinged plate, gold necklace with a blue faceted stone that glowed. It glowed a lot.

Looking to Frigga for permission, Tony picked up the necklace and examined it carefully. Frowning, he cupped his hands around the stone to block out as much external light as he could. Peeking between his fingers, he saw that the stone had not just been reflecting light to a ridiculous extent due to faceting, but actually producing it from within. Despite his attempt to maintain a poker face, both brows rose inquiringly.

"Titanite," Figga explained, touching the gold sectional plates that made up the necklace. "Which is also used in construction of some sort. I'm not too clear on the details. And of course a Star Stone."

"Really?" Tony said almost absent mindedly as he plucked several more items out of the chest. "Jarvis, I need a material run down on these please. Put the readouts up on a display for each piece."

Frigga trailed Tony as he moved several benches away to lay various pieces one by one on a sensor pad. Closing the clear lexan box between each scan, Tony intently watched as the floating displays more often than not refused to come up with a material analysis.

"Sir, perhaps you might have better luck in Doctor Banner's lab. He has several other different kinds of analyzers." Jarvis said.

"Ya know, I don't think so buddy." Tony mused, stroking his neatly trimmed goatee and looking intently at the various displays.

He turned his head and studied Frigga.

"You don't give up do you?" Tony asked almost amused.

Frigga gave a sad chuckle. "Sta- Anthony, I have the gift of foreknowledge. While I can't proclaim my prophecies, I would be ill served if I couldn't use the information to get something I desperately want."

Apparently this skill had not served her too well in the recent past as she crumpled a bit, and said hollowly, "Would that I had thought to take the time to look at recent events in greater detail, perhaps things would have turned out better."

Yeah really, Tony thought to himself, me and psycho kid wish you had too.

Walking back to the chest, Tony placed the jewelry back inside, before he shut the lid and locked it, keeping his one hand its lid.

He stood there, looking at, but not really seeing the key in his hand, thinking furiously. While the engineer still wanted no parts of an injured god of mischief being incarcerated in his tower, even one that was power bound and of supposedly reduced to mortal strength. However… Tony would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued by the strange materials the goddess had shown him.

"So… Your Majesty, how much material can be delivered at one time from Asgard?"

He noticed a sly smile curling the tips of Frigga's lips, relief tentatively stealing over her face.

"Well without the BiFrost, it is of course more difficult to travel and the amount carried would be perhaps a half a ton per person. When the BiFrost is repaired, then several wagon loads at a time easily."

Okay, maybe not enough for production runs, unless the amount of material per item used was very small. But definitely enough for experimenting with or trying in a future suit upgrade. Tony pursed his lips, as he unconsciously pocketed the key, "So, any idea when the Rainbow Bridge might be fixed?"

Tony was taken aback at the gleefully feral face presented to him. Frigga's eyes took on a wicked light and her mouth turned up in a frankly nasty smile that showed way more teeth than he thought the queen normally displayed. Kinda scary look actually, again he could see the resemblance between Loki Momma and her maniac son. Adopted or not, they had obviously spent a lot of time in each other's company.

"Oh," She trilled, dark joy apparent in her voice and expression, "The senior dwarf artificers and our best mages have been working to repair it, without any success, since shortly after it was destroyed. I'm afraid the loss of my son to the void, dealt them a severe setback."

No?

_No!_

Tony scrubbed hard little circles on his temples, his fingers trying to rub away the sharp stabbing pain that shot through them. He had to be misunderstanding that last statement. Surely she was not trying to tell him that Reindeer Games knew how to build an Einstein-Rosen Bridge.

He lifted incredulous eyes upon the queen, "Are you trying to tell me that Rudolf—I mean Loki 'knows' how to build a Rainbow Bridge? As in a bridge that can transport people and stuff from one planet to another?"

Frigga beamed at him, projecting such fierce, bright pride that it was almost blinding to experience.

"Rather let us say that Loki understands the theory behind the construction better than anyone in the Nine Realms. After all there is no one now alive from when it was originally constructed. But even as a child he was curious about it and continually badgered information out of the old mages who had worked upon it in their youth."

Then the prideful light went out like someone had flipped a switch.

"An unusual interest for an 'Asgardian' child," She told him, distain dripping from the word 'Asgardian'.

Taking a few agitated steps, Frigga tossed her head irritably as her lip curled in an ugly sneer, "Despite their disgust for his supposedly unmanly mastery of seiðr and their contempt for his scholarship, no one on the council even seriously considered giving Loki a death sentence." A bitter, hateful laugh escaped her lips, "No, they would have rather have my son imprisoned and shackled to their will for the next five hundred years."

Rage was clear in every line of her body, in the stiffness of her shoulders and the rigidity of her face. Tony played nervously with his suit bracelets and considered putting at least one work bench between them as a safety zone.

"And the All Father did not gainsay them, even though it was in his power to do so," She hissed. "But the council failed to keep him from further harm. His 'father' failed, numerous times, to keep him safe. So I say that they have lost their chance." She fastened her brilliant blue eyes upon Tony, willing him to understand.

"Let them realize what they have lost through their pig headed carelessness," Frigga said scathingly still watching Tony's every move. "When they do they will come on their knees and offer my Loki his freedom and restoration of his position in exchange for his help."

_Okay, again with the knees._ _That has got to be an Asgardian kink of some sort,_ Tony thought sourly.

OoooO

Well hell. Who knew that Loki Momma was going to make such a compelling case for him keeping the god of assholes incarcerated?

"Okay then. Jarvis, get Brucie on the phone for me please." Tony asked as he patted the Jewelry chest one more time, his hand leaving it with clear reluctance. Lost in thought for a moment he worried his lower lip.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but losing access to Loki is going to be a major ass-fucking for Asgard fixing their rainbow bridge isn't it?"

"Oh yes." The Queen breathed delightedly as she stepped closer and smiled at Tony.

Okay, this bridge thing… losing it would be like suddenly losing every international flight into or out of the county. Yeah, certain small groups of well-connected people could still get where they wanted to go… Tony glanced up at Frigga, but then looked over at the gaggle of guards and handmaidens standing by the door and then lowered his head in thought, but ONLY the very powerful and well-connected had the option to come and go as they pleased… even if it was more difficult. Everyone else? Totally screwed.

He looked up at Frigga thoughtfully, "You know, you're taking this well for an Asgardian aren't you?"

Twirling and then tucking an escaped lock of blonde hair back up into her hairdo, her finely shaped hands moving with the unerring skill of someone who has done this for centuries if not longer, Frigga smiled at Tony. "While as their queen, I of course must consider what is in the best interest of the Æsir, even if they are currently persecuting my son… however I was born a Vanir." Curling her fingers out, she regarded her palm as though something important was inscribed upon it, before rolling her fingers back in towards her palm.

After a moment, she looked solemnly up at Tony, "So, Star— Anthony, do we have a deal?" she asked, the corners of her mouth curling up impishly.

Tony grinned at her, "You knew you were getting a deal when you walked in here, didn't you?"

_Frigga's kid might be crazy murdering maniac and I may be a selfish asshole, but damn if I don't know an exclusive opportunity when I see one, _Tony thought gleefully_. _

"Jarvis, call Pepper, tell her we need her back here to cross some T's and dot some I's." He waved her over to the chair by his design table, "So, who in the government did your magic crystal ball tell you we needed to call to keep SHIELD off of your little Lokikin's case?" Tony asked as he opened up a few screens, "Oh, and Jarvis? Start taking notes please."

As Frigga at last consented to be seated, Tony's eyes narrowed in amusement. "So, your Majesty… What exactly are the terms and conditions you're proposing?"

OoooO

While waiting for Bruce, Pepper, and a Deputy Secretary of Defense to arrive he and Frigga had agreed to several basic terms.

Tony would have the contents of the chest appraised for value; keeping in mind that many of the pieces within were unique even on Asgard, let alone the value they contained in being materials not available on earth. Tony, not Stark International, not SHIELD, not the Avengers would deduct the cost of Loki's care from that total, and when those funds ran low, Tony would either receive another chest or could make a specific request for certain materials, allowing of course lead time for the ones that were not readily available even in Asgard. Oh, and he had to send the Queen a detailed statement of charges and a condition update every three months in an envelope, wax sealed with a signet ring she gave him.

Tony was obligated to provide Loki with food, water, clothing, a suitable environment and medical care as needed. Also reading and writing material and some opportunity for physical activity. The one item they had a disagreement about was that physical activity, since there was no way in hell Tony was letting the irritating little punk outside, even if it was only up on his roof.

Eventually, after Jarvis pulled up the architectural plans of the floor he was going to house Loki on, and explained what a bike was, it was agreed that there was sufficient unused space outside where his cell was going to be placed for Loki to exercise, since it was as Jarvis pointed out, having the entire floor gave Loki an area large enough to ride a bike in. That unknown to the Asgardians, form of transportation briefly threatened to sidetrack their conversation, but they were finally able to continue.

The cell, or suite as Frigga insisted on calling it, would be a modified version of a Hulk bunker. It was slightly larger with an attached bathroom and an airlock sort of double door chamber attached to it. That way Loki's food and what not could be delivered and that area secured before the door to Loki's area would open to allow him to access it. Tony would be paying for that, since it was going to be a permanent improvement to his property.

Amazingly, at least to Tony, Queen Frigga was more concerned that Loki's cell be strong enough to keep unauthorized persons out, rather than worrying that it was going to keep Loki in. Or maybe not so amazing, Loki had already been assaulted twice. At any rate, once Tony had explained that Thor with his hammer was the only known way to ever even damage the walls, she acknowledged that it should be safe enough.

Frigga insisted that knowledge of and access to Loki be restricted to just Tony, Pepper and Bruce, or Tony's personal physician if Bruce was not available for an emergency. No one else was allowed near Loki unless one of the three of him with them the entire time. At first she wanted to restrict it to just Tony, but agreed also allowing the other two after Tony pointed out that he sometimes traveled. Thor, later taking the queen aside for a private chat also helped get her to agree.

"Your building's spirit and metal servants can take care of his needs and at least I don't have to worry that they will abuse him." Frigga said with a tired smile. Which for some reason made Tony feel kind of bad for her and maybe just a little bit for her kid.

But they had been at it for hours and Tony was starting to feel the events of the day weighing him down. He wished whoever Frigga had called from Washington would hurry up and get here, so they could be done with this mess.

"Yeah, and if your kid starts to give me grief? What then?" Tony had demanded.

Frigga closed her eyes for a moment; her features pinched in pain, her hand coming up to haltingly stoke, as if for comfort, the gold filigree pendant hanging from her necklace. She regarded Tony with a sigh.

"He will not be your guest Anthony; even I can't change the fact that this will be his prison. If he should become… unruly, certainly comforts and privileges can be revoked until his behavior is amended."

"Heimdall will also be watching him, in case there is any sort of problem that you cannot deal with."

"Well that right there, we have a problem. I'm not a big fan of having some all-seeing Norse Busybody watching every move that goes on in my tower. Let's talk about that."

OoooO

There had been a quick whispered fight with Pepper. Which Tony totally won when he mentioned the various unknown materials he was getting access too. Pepper then disappeared to start wrangling Jarvis' notes into a preliminary contract.

Tony dragged Bruce upstairs to introduce him to the Asgardian healer and help get Loki over to the medical wing. Bruce wanted to run some tests, get a base line of Loki's injuries and details of any recommended treatment needed. The good doctor wasn't happy about it by any means, but Bruce came around a bit when he learned that the god's strength, magic and memories of the last several years had been removed leaving him vulnerable to repeated assaults for reasons he wouldn't even know about.

Trust Bruce to feel for the underdog, even if said underdog had been a murdering megalomaniac world conquer just months earlier.

As per the way things usually worked out, the Washington group arrived within minutes of each other. During their original phone call, it had taken several minutes for Jarvis and the Queen to convince Daniel Nudact, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, that her call was not a hoax. However the man had remained in contact with Jarvis and had shown up with two other officials, one a Special Prosecutor and the other the Department of Justice Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications. None of them, Nudact assured the queen would allow any information to leak, not now and not in the future. Also, due to the queen's insistence, they had already hashed out amongst themselves a level of classification that exceeded even the SHIELD council that Nick Fury answered to.

His attention split between them all, Tony had reluctantly stayed with Pepper and Bruce to get them on board, while Frigga, over the strenuous objections of her guards, took the Washington Three and the chick who had been carrying the chest into a conference room for a private conversation. Tony consoled himself that he would watch the security vid of their meeting later to find out what was said.

It wasn't until the next day he discovered that somehow, white light and an undulating hum was all that the recording showed. Tony hated magic.

OoooO

Once they finished working on the injured ex-god, he was put in some sort of healing sleep coma and surround by a glowing green haze. Since Loki would stay like that until he was healed and the haze disappeared, there wasn't much else that needed to be done with him. So Tony, Bruce and Eir wheeled him down to the Hulk's cage for Jarvis to monitor. Fortunately for Tony, not for Loki, it was going to be at least two to eight weeks for Loki to come out of his coma thing. That would give Tony would have plenty of time to get Loki's floor and an improved cell ready before the stricken god-ling woke up.

He, Tony Stark personally, had a contact with the royal family of an alien planet. This contract was co-signed by three of the biggest behind the scenes power hitters in Washington and said contract made him the not-so-proud owner of one bat shit crazy Asgardian Prince and a chest full of new material to play with. But as exciting as the new material was, the last few hours had been as boring as hell and it took everything he could do not to fall asleep during the final review and appending of medical reports and then thank god, the signing. One wrinkle that was totally Asgardian was the Queen laying a geas on everyone to keep the matter private.

A magically enforced confidentiality agreement… Tony really hated magic.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have kudo'd and bookmarked in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	5. Chapter 5 - Doctor Bruce

**Chapter Summary**: Doctor Banner violates patient confidentiality, no one is amused.

**WARNINGS** - Mention of previous sexual assault, references to Past Rape/Non Com, mentions of different sorts of alien anatomy/sexuality.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. Rating may change in later part of fic.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 5 - Doctor Bruce**

"Hey, Tony. Jarvis told me you were up." Bruce said wandering into the kitchen carrying an empty tea cup. Tony had talked him in to staying for a while and Brucie was comfortable in a small suite of rooms on the medical floor.

"What's up Brucie? Oooh, nice bling my man, where did that come from?" Tony asked nodding towards a fairly ornate and frankly a little girly, gold and green pendent that Bruce was wearing… which reminded Tony of something… but it would take several more cups of coffee for him to think what it was.

"Yeah, nice huh?" Bruce replied a bit embarrassed, pushing his glasses back into place with one finger. "It's _was_ the queen's necklace, but she gave it to me last week when she was saying good bye to her kid."

Ah, that's where Tony had seen it before.

"Payment for services?" Tony asked distractedly, looking in the fridge for some left overs to eat. "I gotta say buddy, it's not exactly your style." Triumphant, he pulled out a mostly full carton of Szechuan Beef left over from lunch the day before and grabbed a fork from the silverware drawer.

"Kinda," Bruce said looking a bit shamefaced. "I think she was worried that my 'warrior' would come out and damage her kid if, er… rather when… he turned mouthy. She claims the guy we saw was not really him, but did admit that his mouth could get on people's last nerve when he was upset." He touched it gently with a finger, "She put a spell on it to keep the Other Guy from coming out unless I take it off."

Tony's head jerked up, his fork full of cold spicy beef stopped in midair, forgotten as he stared intently at Bruce.

"Really?" Tony trilled, as sauce dripped from his stalled fork onto the floor.

"And it works?"

Bruce nodded.

"How does it work?" Tony said, almost to himself.

"I don't know, but even some jerk running a light and almost running me over a few days ago didn't faze him, and let me tell you I was plenty angry."

At Tony's speculative look Bruce closed his hand protectively over the pendant and glared. "And no Tony, you are not touching it."

"Aw Brucie," whined Tony, setting down his food and circling around the center island to get a closer look. "Just a few little tests and maybe some nice non-invasive scans."

"No Tony." Bruce told him so fiercely that Tony was taken aback.

Well… Bruce was a science bro, so either he already ran some tests, which Tony would find out about sooner or later…. Or… Control of the Hulk, real control, would open up a lot of possibilities for Bruce to actually have a life, a real life. Like possibly even get laid and other blood pressure raising things like alcohol, crowds and maybe he would even be able to yell at a barista for getting his order wrong… If the pendant kept working. If nobody, like say Tony, messed it up that was.

And she did it on the fly to protect her kid. Tony wondered how powerful Frigga was, she was obviously powerful enough to stand up to Loki-daddy but what else could she do, he would have to ask Snape when he woke up. Speaking of which…

"How's my little sleeping beauty? Did you check on him yet? Is it okay to move the princess into her new chamber?"

_Hazy Asgardian healing comas were wonderful things, you didn't even have to rotate the patient. _

"Yeah, he is." Bruce said, pouring more hot water into his cup and fiddling uncomfortably with a new teabag. "I couldn't note it in my medical report, but Princess isn't really too far off the mark you know. You might not want to use that nickname when he wakes up."

"He's a girl?"

"Bruce didn't answer; he just stood there looking uncomfortable.

_No._

_Really?_

Tony was now wildly curious, wondering what exactly was hidden underneath the donated packs of boxer briefs and tank tops he had supplied when the stricken god was being cleaned up. Bruce's eyes regarded him steadily over his glasses.

"No shit?" Tony said, amazed at the news.

_Well. What do you know?_

Tony thought that might explain the whole fascination thing he went through right after the invasion. The playboy had spent hours looking at stills of Loki, not vid, not voice, but fricking stills. So unless he had been thinking of being a celebrity contestant and incorporating Asgardian Fashion on the next Project Runway season… Which he wasn't. Tony would have to admit, if only to himself, he had been checking the dude out. Not that Tony couldn't admire a good looking guy, he could. But it was just he had been kind of confused about exactly why he was so interested. Not that Loki having so many androgynous features had helped his confusion, or the whole brainy-crazy thing, which was always interesting, oh he was powerful, that was completely and totally hot.

"Yeah?" Tony agreed lost in his private thoughts, "You know Bruce, nothing about Loki makes sense."

Well if anyone on earth had wanted to tick off 'Banged Imprisoned Alien Wanna-be Overlord' from their bucket list, it would have been Tony. So maybe it's a good thing he hadn't known. Tony felt himself getting warm. Hot, crazy, _unexpectedly_ _female_, was leaving the planet the next day? Hell yeah, he definitely would have rerouted the security feed and at least tried to make friends. Fuck, he had been reluctantly fascinated when he thought Invasion-Loki was a guy, so tall, with legs that didn't quit, that face, a voice that sent shivers… But also female?

"What?" He demanded becoming aware of Bruce's frown.

By the glare Bruce was throwing his way, the good doctor seemed to have been aware of at least the general direction of Tony's private musings. And Bruce was apparently not very happy to see Tony head in that direction either.

_But hey, I'm a guy, guys thinks things like that. Well obviously Bruce doesn't... But maybe he'll start if that whole pendant thing works out for him and he gets a chance to be a regular guy instead of a tea drinking, yoga chanting, Hulk sitter. _

"We did an MRI," Bruce said staring distractedly down at some random notes on his StarkPad, avoiding Tony's eyes. "Information which we did _not_ appended to the main medical report. While you can't see it to look at him, Loki seems to be a fully functional dual sexual." He scrolled idly down the screen he was blindly looking at, "Which is pretty freaking amazing actually, space aliens, go figure. But this is apparently not something common with Asgardians, the term their healer used for the condition was Yotim." He looked up at Tony. "We can't tell him either, his condition is apparently a closely guarded secret, hidden with a glamour of some sort, even from him and known only to his parents and the lady who was working on him with me."

"Really?" Okay, so not female, not really, but it totally fit in with Loki's whole schizo appearance. He raised his eyebrows and tossed a 'please, do go on' look at Bruce.

Bruce's lips thinned, "Eri had tossed her helpers out of the room before we started checking and cleaning up the rape trauma." Tony blanched as the floor dropped out from underneath him. Bruce continued in a harsher voice, "Which doubtless would have been worse if some sort of glamour didn't keep everyone from knowing about the whole dual sexual thing."

Okay now Tony felt like a deviate pervy shit. All those warm tingly feelings soured leaving a really bad taste in the back of his throat.

"What?" Bruce asked taking in Tony's stricken expression, voice and face as neutral as only years of yoga could make it. "The guy was restrained and almost beaten to death; you didn't think that was possible too?"

_Well, okay. Yeah, it's possible, but honestly who thinks of stuff like that? Well obviously the vile fuckers who did it, but still. Not normal people. Normal people don't think of stuff like that, let alone do stuff like that. _

Tony swallowed down his nausea, "That's just sick Bruce," he said faintly, leaning against the island, groping for one of the stools underneath it and sitting down. Not that there weren't people who would think that Loki had only gotten what he deserved. But Tony considered them to be sick too, understandably grieving mind you, but still.

"I know it is Tony. But he's getting better and hey, it won't happen here, which is what his mom was looking for."

Tony was embarrassed about the thoughts and speculation he had been doing just a few minutes earlier, which would have never involved force. But still, what Tony had been thinking, that would have been some nice consensual fun, others had done with force and violence.

Tony shriveled inside.

"Come on Bruce," he said tiredly. Let's get the Merlin down to his new room."

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

**Progress Notes** - I am muddling my way though the middle. And it is a slog let me tell you... Have I mentioned that I don't like posting before something is finished? Oh yeah I have, my bad. Anyhow... The middle is almost done, but perhaps not as well as I would like, so we'll see how it goes. Right now I just want the damn section to be finished.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	6. Chapter 6 - Sleeping Beauty

**Chapter Summary**: As Tony well knows, if something is going to happen... it will happen at the absolute worst time.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. Rating may change in later part of fic.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 6 – Sleeping Beauty**

"Sir?"

"Not now Jarvis," Tony said, his finger tracing out the wiring on a piece of Chitauri tech, trying to figure out what it had been designed for. "I only have two hours to figure this out before I have to get ready for that Senior Management meeting that Pepper roped me into."

"Actually sir, you only have a little over an hour, but I assure you that you want to hear my news."

Crap, he was never going to figure this out in just an hour. "Alright," he said, rolling his eyes slightly and disgusted at having to stop. "What ya got Jarvis? Our stock slipped a point? Liam Payne just announced his undying love for Justin Timberlake? Johnny Depp wants a date? What?"

"The glow has disappeared from Mister Odinson, and he appears to be trying to wake up." Jarvis said calmly.

"Of course he is," huffed Tony.

Predictably, after spending months sleeping surrounded and cared for by that gentle green glow. Months of being completely and totally no maintenance and no trouble at all, again thanks again to that lovely green glow, Loki decided to wake up just when Tony would have to leave. Figures.

"Jarvis, call Pepper for me, I'm going to have to cancel this afternoon."

"Sir, might I remind you that Ms. Potts has threatened to eviscerate you if you miss this year's meeting."

"Yeah, well this is an emergency, she'll understand."

"As I recall sir," Jarvis retorted, "You claimed that the last three times you missed were also emergencies. She has not forgotten that one of your 'emergencies' was caused by you deciding to stay late at a car show."

"Ouch. Jarvis, you hurt me. Pain, lots of it, right here." Tony clutched dramatically at his heart.

"I don't believe that is where Ms. Potts threatened to wound you if you missed this year sir; I believe it was about two feet lower.

Tony grimaced. "Fine, don't call her. She would probably be all unreasonable and emotional anyhow."

"Sir, are you sure you want to use the word emotional in any sentence that references Ms. Potts?"

"Ha. No, probably not after what happen the last time. Tell ya what Jarvis, call Bruce ask him to come over."

OoooO

Something was missing, he thought slowly, but what? Taking another breath, Loki tried to open his eyes, but it was so hard and he was so tired. After trying again, which only resulted in his eye lashes fluttering he decided to just keep them closed and rest a minute.

Something was missing, but something was also wrong. Even with his head stuffed with wool, eyes glued shut and limbs that wouldn't move he knew something was very, very wrong.

His arms were dull, leaden things and he was amazed at the effort it took to move his fingers. The weight on his chest was his own hand; the fingers he had moved with so much effort could be felt above the thin soft material he was clothed in. Strange feeling material, thin and very soft, like the material that babes were clothed in. Also something light was over top his hands; he felt it rub on his knuckles when he moved his hand again. Concentrating harder than he would need to for a major working Loki brought his right hand up to rub his eyes, and froze when he felt cold hard metal touch his cheek and a thin cold cord drape across his neck and mostly bare shoulder. Was it metal also? Was it a restraint?

Had he been… Could he have been… Was he… a prisoner somewhere?

It started small, just a trill of terror gliding up his spine, then he shuddered hard, the movement jarring sore muscles and within an instant he was shaking, every part of him was shaking, shaking so hard he couldn't breathe.

He had to find out. Arms trembling he brought his hands together, one unsteady hand covering the other as his fingers mapped out the cold metal cuff. Shakily his fingers danced on its surface, finding no hinge or hasp or lock, only a long hard cord of some kind that just felt like it was fused into the cuff.

Desperate to see, Loki's hands ghosted up to his face, rubbing at his eyes, trying to help them to open. Finally after what seemed like a year of trying, his eyes opened, and almost immediately closed, but not before he caught a fuzzy glimpse of a green healing haze surrounding him, which flickered away as he looked at it.

As the green haze disappeared he was shocked to hear a voice beside him.

"So, Sleeping Beauty, I see you finally decided to wake up huh?"

Every muscle in his body contracted as a cold, mocking voice washed over him. Somehow he found himself sitting up, wedged in a corner, a cool hard surface at his back as he blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the figure standing over him, trying to stop shaking.

The creature looming over him had brown eyes, cropped brown hair and a short matching beard trimmed much like Fandral's, but he was far too short to be an Asgardian, not stocky enough to be a dwarf and his face was squarer than any elf Loki had ever met in Álfheimr. Male, he was definitely a male, behind him was an opening of some sort, possibly a door beyond it, glass or crystal by the look of it.

"Hey, calm down okay?" The man huffed in mild amusement at his distress. "It's me, Tony Stark? Iron Man? Remember me?"

Loki's eyes snapped up and held the brown ones above him, his brows knitted in thought, Midgardian? Yes, Midgardian, it had to be. Loki might be shaky and just woken from a healing sleep with no restorative draught, but even in his weakened state he could take a single mortal with no trouble at all.

Watching the mortal named Stark from the corner of his eye, Loki slid to the side of the bed he was on, and slipped his legs down to the floor. He was shaky, but by leaning his back against the wall he could move towards the door. He felt a slight tension on his wrist and looked at the cuff. How had he had forgotten about it? Surely the cord was longer than it had been a minute ago.

Loki jerked his arm to get pull slack, but the cord didn't move. Alarmed, he looked at where it was attached to the wall. Why? It had moved before, Loki leaned back slowly to see how much tension it would resist, but this time it gave way like it had at first. He jerked his arm and it held firm. So… if he moved his hand slowly, the cord moved with him, granting him more movement, rather than holding him in one area. If he jerked it, like he was going try and yank it out of the wall it locked into place and didn't permit him to move.

"So, bathroom?" The Midgardian named Stark said. "Sure. Okay, just be careful getting in there; let me know if you need a hand."

The brown haired mortal actually moved towards the bed like he wanted to help, trailing behind him with one of his arms slightly raised almost touching his un-cuffed arm, but most importantly, leaving Loki's path to the door open. The instant he was at the entry to the bathing room, Loki slid past it, smoothly extending his wrist in front of him to gain more slack in the cord as he glided through the nearby antechamber towards the cell door. The walls of his cell were clear, he didn't see anyone else within sight of the cell, strangely the brown haired man was alone.

"Hey. Stop. You don't need to go there," the surprised Stark yelped, hurrying behind him and grabbing his arm. "You need to stay in here. Look just go do your business, freshen up and then go sit down, we'll talk then okay?"

Loki tried to pull his arm away, but the mortal wouldn't let go and seemed to be surprisingly strong, much stronger than Loki thought a mortal should be. Even in his weakened state Loki should have been able to easily break the man's hold on his arm.

But he couldn't. Not only that, but the mortal's other arm grabbed Loki's thin shirt and he was actually dragging him away from the door!

The mortal Stark was trying to drag him back, Loki was trying to stay by the door, he grabbed the man's shirt and spun him around.

"Jarvis reel him in," the mortal called out. "Get him back to bed."

As he spun Stark around, Loki had to duck out from under the cord, to keep it from becoming entangled as they grappled with each other.

The cord started gently tugging him back towards the bed, but as he and the other man fought, all that really happened was that the shorter man became surrounded by loops of the metal cord and the cord began to tighten as it tugged both him and the yelling mortal away from the door.

Frantic and breathing heavily, Loki wrapped his arms around the man dragging them both to the floor so he could brace his feet the interior door's frame.

"Ow!"

"Damn it Loki that hurt," the brown haired man yelled as they fell, eyes snapping in anger. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Loki's legs strained against the door frame and his arms tightened around the trussed up mortal as the cord tried to tow them both back into the other room. Loki desperately hoped this would give him enough leverage to keep the cable from dragging him back into the cell before other guards were made aware of the disturbance and came to help.

Right now all Loki could hope for is that this Stark person had the key to open the cuffs, here before they were yanked back any further. Loki had no intention of allowing the metal cord to get as short as it had been when he had first woke up. If that happened he would be trapped without any room to maneuver.

"Stop. Jarvis stop! Stop! The cable is tightening around me!" The dark haired man yelled. "Where's Banner?"

"How do I open this cuff mortal?" Loki growled into his ear, voice harsh with anger and disuse.

"Sir, Doctor Banner is in the elevator, he is headed towards the medical wing, and he will be here as quickly as he can," Said Jarvis. "Sir, shall I alert S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Loki, you can't. It won't open for you. Just relax and let's go back in there, you sit down and we'll talk about what's happening. Jarvis tell Banner forget the medical wing and just get up here!"

"Shall I alert S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Fuck S.H.I.E.L.D!" Tony screamed "Tell Banner to get his ass here now and give me some slack on this damn cable!"

Knowing that someone else was coming and that his time was growing shorter, Loki took a chance, hoping that he could hold Stark with just the cord and his cuffed hand. He brought his free arm up around his captor's neck and squeezed. He just wished the fuzzy feeling in his head would clear up enough for him to use his magic, so he wouldn't have to resort to such crude methods of persuasion. Physical violence was more Thor's style than his.

"I want this cuff off, and I want it off now!" Loki hissed as his arm tightened cruelly against the man's neck, even as he slid them both backward taking advantage of the extra cable to get closer to the exterior door. He squeezed he man's neck tighter, more than enough to let him know he meant business. "I might not be able to open this cuff, but you better hope you can or I'm going to break your neck."

"You don't want to do that, look just-" His voice cut off momentarily as Loki gave him a hard, quick warning squeeze. Something was wrong, something was majorly wrong. Loki was far weaker than he should be, but he was strong enough to snap a neck if he so desired.

"Jarvis open the cuff now." Stark called in a strangled raspy voice as Loki eased up on his throat.

With the way the blood was pounding in his ears, Loki was not surprised that he couldn't hear the cuff click open, but he did feel it loosening. Stripping it off his wrist, he twisted the attached cord once around Stark's neck and then wrapped it securely around one of the cord loops that already encircled the angry struggling man.

While Loki didn't hear anything, Stark apparently noticed some movement, Loki followed his gaze in time to see a door slide shut on the far wall and another Midgardian man running towards the cell.

"Sir, protocol is the outer door doesn't open while the prisoner is not secure and the inner door is open." The voice said urgently.

"Just do it! Fuck protocol Jarv-" Loki clapped his hand over the man's mouth so he couldn't give any more orders or warn the approaching man that Loki was no longer cuffed to the wall.

Stark rolled angry eyes up and glared at Loki, his screams muffled by Loki's hand, struggling furiously as he tried to break free from his grasp. Despite the man's struggles, Loki managed to get to his feet and without taking his hand from Stark's mouth he crab crawled, dragging the man with him as close as he could get towards the door. Not facing it, but rather placing it on his right and watching it from the corner of his eye. A brief pat down of Stark didn't find a weapon on the short man, and this worried Loki. Where they so confident that Loki couldn't escape that the guards didn't even bother to carry weapons?

The other mortal had made it to the outer door, as it slid open Loki stood up, jerking his captive up also and shoving him hard towards the opposite side of the entry chamber. As he hoped, this distracted the man entering, who made an involuntary grab to try and prevent the trussed up mortal from falling. He wasn't fast enough to switch directions before Loki surged past him using his elbow to hit the new jailor hard in the small of the back, pitching him forward on top of the brown haired man. Loki sprinted out the door before it could finish closing. Both men were both screaming in pain and calling his name as the door slid shut, momentarily muffling their cries.

Breathing heavily, clutching his hand to his side, Loki sprinted as fast as he could towards the large metal doors, they had no handles, but there was a button, which he pushed. Not that it did him any good, either the doors won't open for prisoners or if they do open, it will take too long be of use to Loki. Stumbling along the wall looking for a door, a window that will open he came across a different door, smaller and very plain with a bar across it that doesn't lift, after he desperately bounced up against the door in aggravation trying to see if he could force it open, his hip hit the bar and it pushed in with the click of a latch releasing. A sign above the door is illuminated and it proclaims that this door is an EXIT.

So Loki does. He is not sure what the word means, but the door did open...

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	7. Chapter 7 - Where'd he go?

**Chapter Summary**: Bruce's control is sorely tested.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. Rating may change in later part of fic.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 7 – Where'd he go? **

Tony is starting to lose patience. Yes Loki looks like he is waking up, and yes the green healing glow thing keeps flickering on and off, but he's been standing here for half an hour, watching, and so far all the broken god has done is blink and turn his head from side to side. If he doesn't wake up soon, Tony is going to be major late for his meeting, which thank heavens, is only an elevator ride away, but still, he'll be late and Pepper will be livid.

At almost the limit of Tony's admittedly limited patience, the glow disappears and doesn't come back. Sleeping Beauty's eyes finally open and Tony is confused to be looking into a pair of dark green eyes rather than the bright blue ones he remembers from the last time the god was here. Where the fuck did those come from? For that matter, looking at him even in the beginnings of a panic, the god looks much younger than he did before.

And upset, really, really upset as he slid off the bed towards the bathroom. Tony tried to follow behind the god close enough to help if he felt wobbly but he was caught off guard when this first movement was not a potty run but actually an escape attempt.

"Hey. Stop. You don't need to go there," he called out grabbing at Loki's arm. "You need to stay in here. Look just go do your business, freshen up and then go sit down, we'll talk then okay?"

Loki tried to pull his arm away from Tony, but seemed really surprised that he couldn't.

_Okay, that was funny. _

Tony couldn't wait to see the face he made when he found out that he was not only bereft of his godly strength but also his bibbity bobbity boo. But still, the bastard had just got out of bed for the first time in weeks and Bruce was going to be major pissed if he didn't get him back to bed so he began towing the god back to bed.

_What the-_

"Jarvis reel him in," Tony called out. "Get him back to bed."

And that was when all hell broke loose. Crazy god started spinning him around trying to wind him up in the cable and then when he got Jarvis to start towing him back to bed, Tony found out he was wrapped up in the cable, no _trying_ about it. And then he was on the floor and then he had a maniac god who had just got out of his sick bed thank you very much trying to choke him and threatening him and throwing him all over the damn place!

_I really should have left the bastard alone and gone to my damn meeting._

"Tony, my god. Tony are you okay," Bruce asked urgently, trying to unwrap the handcuff and get the cable that was cutting into his neck off of Tony.

It was all Tony could do not to scream at him, fuck **_no_** he wasn't all right. He just been dropped on his face, taking a nasty crack to the side of his forehead, not to mention jarring his shoulder, he had a freaking cable cutting into his arm and the side of his neck, his knee was killing him and... the whip cream on his shit sundae was the son of a bitching bane of his freaking existence was now roaming free in his tower.

"Jarvis, where the fuck is he?" he growled brushing off Bruce's hands.

"I was able to override the elevator door sir, but he used the emergency exit, and is heading up the stairs."

Unlooping the last bit of cable, Bruce helped Tony to his feet. "How'd he get in the stair well Jarvis, isn't that locked?

"Unfortunately, Doctor Banner, even Stark Towers is not allowed to restrict entry to the emergency stairs, but without a code for reentry or me overriding the locks the doors will only open to the roof or the lower lobby exit." Jarvis said apologetically. "He's heading up to the roof sir."

"Jarvis, open the elevator," Tony called, grabbing Bruce's arm and hustling him along. "Keep an eye on him; let me know if he changes direction okay?"

"Of course sir, he is on the last set of stairs before the roof exit and appears to be very winded."

Winded or not, Loki must have been still making time since the stairwell door had already swung shut with no godling in sight when they got there.

"Where did he go?" Bruce asked looking around, seeing planters, benches and seating groups but no recently awoken god of mischief.

"Heimdall!"

Tony motioned for Bruce to go the other way before he darted around the small structure that housed the stairwell. Several yards away he saw Loki standing on a chest high garden wall that separated the patio and garden from the building's mechanicals.

"Heimdall open  
the Bi-Frost!" The god screamed, voice raspy from disuse, hands fisted tight, almost vibrating with tension as he stared up into the afternoon sky.

"Heimdall, please open the Bi-Frost now!" Loki pleaded. "Heimdall!"

"Loki," Tony yelled, "Come on, get down here. I can explain everything."

All the rage and sorrow that had been a moment ago concentrated on the autumn sky was abruptly re-focused on Tony.

Somewhere there is a manual that tells you when an angry ex-god is screaming, the worst thing you can do is draw attention to yourself. Tony makes a mental note to have Jarvis find him a copy.

Assuming Tony survives the next ten minutes or so.

Loki threw his hands up in a classic 'Magic Casting Pose Six', his eyes narrowed and his look became even more intense as he flipped his hands into a 'Merlin Pose Twelve'.

Nothing happened.

Tony would be lying if he said he hadn't been just a touch concerned, but Loki is stunned.

Loki was staring at his hands so shocked, that they will have to put a new definition of the word in the dictionary just to do justice to the way he looked.

"Dude, you got no magic. Please just come back in side. I really think we need to talk." Tony called in what he liked to think of as his best 'soothing crazy' voice.

"What did you do to me?" Loki's snarled voice low and guttural with a back ground note of pleading, green eyes darkened almost black in rage before they locked onto Tony's brown ones. "What. Did. You. Do?!"

"Jarvis…." Tony called, concern making his voice a lot higher pitched that it normally was. "Send me a suit Jarv."

"Now! Jarvis, send it now!"

Three leaping steps were all it took for Loki to get to the end of the wall before he launched himself at Tony.

Tony knew he was fucked. It didn't matter that Loki had had his magic and strength bound. It didn't matter that he had been a wobbly mess not fifteen minutes ago. Even as a mortal Loki still had access to centuries of training in hand to hand combat. Loki had the high ground, Loki had rage and Loki had adrenaline, lots and lots of adrenaline.

What Tony had was a six foot three maniac grabbing Tony's shoulders as he was thrown backwards by Loki's weight and momentum. A extremely furious six foot plus maniac who had no problem at all with driving a knee into Tony's gut as they fell and then grabbing a handful of brown hair and bouncing Tony's head backwards, several times.

Hard.

What Tony now had was a splitting headache, blurry vision and a chance to breathe as Loki was abruptly pulled off of him by Bruce.

"Komast í burtu frá mér þér munaðarleysingja hrogn!**" Loki snarled.

"Look, just don't hit me. You don't want me to get mad. Trust me, you just don't." Tony could hear Bruce frantically telling their escaped prisoner. Or rather 'Tony's' escaped prisoner, since his contract with Queen Momma Frigga did have a no transfer and no share clause.

Tony heard the sound of a really solid body blow.

"Oooofff." Gasped the doctor, somewhere unseen beside Tony.

Tony loved Bruce. He loved him in a bromantic way as deeply as only the sudden return of air to one's body could achieve. And when next he could move, he was going to hug the big lug… and maybe order him a new car.

But right now it was all he could do to roll on his side, breathe shallowly and watch Loki slapping several kinds of hell out of the bespectacled scientist.

Or un-bespectacled scientist, since Bruce's glasses had just gone flying fuck knows where.

While Bruce was probably not enjoying getting the crap beat out of him, it was really a lot more damage that Tony had ever seen Bruce experience without at least starting to Hulk out. As scientifically interesting as this was as a test for Bruce's Asgardian pendant, Tony decided he needed to try and stand to be ready when his suit arrived.

"How did you get that?" Loki yelled, Bruce's ripped shirt allowing him to catch a glimpse of Frigga's pendant.

Without waiting for an answer he snatched at the front of Bruce's shirt drawing him closer. "That belongs to my mother!"

"Loki, calm down. Your mom gave it to me!" Bruce gasped, grabbing Loki's wrists and trying to pry then off his shirt.

"Liar!" He screamed, pulling him closer until he and Bruce were almost nose to nose. "You lie vilely, where is she? What happened to her?!" the Asgardian twisted one of the hands he had fisted into Bruce's shirt for a tighter grip and then wrenching his other hand out of Bruce's grip he snatched the pendant, the solid chain eventually snapping after he jerked on it one more time.

Twirling his hand to wrap the loose chain around it, Loki punched Bruce twice in the stomach with his chain wrapped fist as he unwrapped his other hand from Bruce's shirt and jumped backwards.

"Anytime now Jarvis!" Tony screamed, scrambling to his feet and stretching his arms out at their full extension.

Breathing heavily, Bruce stumbled towards Loki, hand outstretched, grabbing the front of his tank top. "I... Need that... Loki… Give it back… His features contorted, the pain of holding back the beast dropping him to his knees dragging the trickster towards him.

Fortunately, Loki was concentrating on trying to break the hold Bruce had on him when Tony's suit finally arrived and started snapping around him. But Tony wasn't sure if the distraction was worth Loki bringing both fists down on Bruce's shoulders.

"She gave it to… me… to keep… you safe…" Gasping, Bruce took hold of Loki's pant leg with his other hand as he began to curl in pain. "You don't want to… see me… change…"

Bruce's tortured face lifted shakily, an angry green tinge washed over his eyes and rippled briefly across his face as the doctor fought to retain control.

"Got ya!" Tony yelped reaching around the god and clamping gauntleted fingers over each of Loki's wrists. "Drop it now," he commanded squeezing as hard as he dared with the powered gloves.

While he didn't want to crush the bones in Loki's wrists, Tony deemed that to be a lesser risk than unleashing the Hulk on his building. Yeah he could snatch the irritating god and fly high enough that Bruce couldn't reach them, but that would still leave an angry Hulk on a building full of his work, his home and numerous lower floors of Stark International employees.

Loki howled, perhaps in frustration, perhaps in pain, most likely in both.

"DROP IT!" Tony screamed in his ear, his voice amplified by the suits speakers. He tightened his grip a bit more until the pendant dropped to the deck.

Throwing the trouble maker into a grouping of modern-style patio furniture, Tony scrabbled for the pendant being careful not to crush or damage it. "Hang on Brucie," Tony begged palming the jewel as best he could with the unwieldy gauntlets and holding it flush against Bruce's heaving chest.

"No Tony… Get away… I can't hold him…" Bruce sobbed, weakly trying to push Tony's arm away as his skin heaved and twisted, green washing over him and then away as he fought for control of his body.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

(**""Komast í burtu frá mér þér munaðarleysingja hrogn!" Loki snarled. - Get away from me you fatherless spawn)

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	8. Chapter 8 - Bruce is upset

**Chapter Summary**: Bruce is upset, Tony is jubilant and Loki misses story time.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. Rating may change in later part of fic.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 8 - Bruce is upset**

"Tony, you need to leave!" Bruce moaned.

"Can't do that buddy." Tony said, trying to soothe his friend, but prudently shifting so he was standing behind Bruce with his arm over the distressed man's shoulder still holding the pendant to his skin of his chest.

"Tony…."

"Shhhh, Bruce. It's alright. Shhhh. It's going to be fine." Tony whispered to his friend trying not to tear up behind his mask at the heartbreakingly fearful look that Bruce threw over his shoulder, as he feebly motioned for Tony to leave him.

It took less than a minute, and Tony could already see the changes. "Jarvis, make sure we save this," Tony whispered to his AI.

Taking several deep breaths, Bruce's own hand shakily rose, to cover the gauntlet. "I got it Tony," he croaked.

Tony let Bruce slide his hand under the suit's gauntlet to hold the pendant. When he was sure that Bruce was in control, Tony let go and stood in front of him, flipping up his visor so Bruce could see Tony's wide happy grin.

Bruce huffed, tipping the corners of his mouth up at Tony's obvious delight. "Tony, go check on Loki, I think you might have hurt him when you tossed him across the deck."

"Pfft. Like I care," Tony scoffed; relieved to see Bruce's eye and skin color had returned to normal and his muscles had relaxed back to his non-hulk state. "Look at you man!"

Bruce yanked his ruined shirt together, tucking it into his un-Hulk-shredded pants to keep it closed.

"Dude, it so works. You know what that means don't you?" Tony crowed, holding out a hand to help Bruce stand.

"Yeah. I do," Bruce said accepting the assist and standing. "It means I can take the subway without worrying about getting mad and accidently killing anyone."

Tony cackled, "Fuck that Brucie. What it means is your ass can start getting laid again. Ain't no orgasm in the world more stressful that having a six foot three homicidal maniac trying to take you out."

"Funny Tony, really funny." One hand still holding the pendant to his chest and the other rubbing his bruised forehead, Bruce waved Tony away, "You. Go check on Bag-of-Cats."

OoooO

Even though he didn't really want to, Tony went over to make sure he hadn't actually killed his resident god. Loki had knocked over a few chairs and slid to stop partially underneath a large round heavy table. Unfortunately for him, none of the chair cushions had landed under the unconscious trickster. Tony plucked up the two cushions that were actually lying on the god, tossing them to the side as Bruce came up beside him.

"You know," Tony observed calmly, "evil wanna be dictators look so cute when they're sleeping."

"If you say so Tony, but I would one would rather they look cute secured in their cell."

"Ooo Kinky… But true enough I suppose," Tony agreed. Thinking for a minute if he just wanted to pick the god up with the suit or let him retain a smidge of dignity and walk back down under his own power. In the end he decided that the iron man suit was already unwieldy using elevators and would be worse with a whopping big deity slung over one shoulder.

"Well let's get this taken care of before he comes around. Bruce let me borrow your belt okay?"

Using Bruce's woven belt, Tony noosed the belt over one ankle and then leaving some slack in between; he wrapped and tucked it around the other, creating a crude hobble that should slow crazy brain down bit if he decided to do another runner.

"I think it's a good look for him," he said turning to Bruce. "What do you think?"

Bruce was cradling his pendant in both hands. "I think I want us to make some sort of holder or chain for this so the pendant touches my skin, but it won't be easily seen or snatched." He frowned and thought a moment more, "Or scratched, or bumped, or-"

"I get the idea Bruce. It won't be a problem; we'll come up with something to keep it secure." Tony assured him as he nudged the fallen god with his metal covered foot.

They stood there a few minutes, Bruce taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and nestling the pendant in it before enfolding the pendant in the soft cloth and slipping it deep in his pocket for safety.

Tony just watched as Loki several times tried to lift his head and open his eyes.

After a fairly decent effort, but not before Bruce had found his glasses, the god actually was able to roll on his side.

Loki groaned and managed to push himself up into a sitting position, but Tony could see he was still not really with them. Loki's head was lolling and he kept trying to hold his eyes open and not really succeeding.

"Loki, hey. Can you hear me okay?" Bruce asked softly as he crouched down and brushed the long hair back out of the god's face. Loki finally managed to get his eyes to stay open. He held his hand up and regarded the deep bruises and a shallow cut that had been left by the Tony's gauntlet with deep dismay. He then held up the other, made a few gestures which did exactly nothing, before folding both hands to his chest, holding himself in a panicky kind of way.

Bruce leaned in to take a good look at the god's pupils. Startled, Loki tried to scramble back, and for the first moment his expression was equal parts of confusion at Bruce's closeness and alarm that he was restrained. But Tony could tell the moment he put it all together. Confused and alarmed Loki disappeared as his features sharpened; he glared at them with narrow green slits of malice as his hands dove down to his ankles, fingers flying trying to get the belt loose.

"Heimdall!" Loki screamed, tugging at the restraint. "Heimdall open the Bi-Frost!"

"Hey, hey. None of that!" Tony admonished pushing Loki's hands away from the hobble.

"How dare you lay hands upon a Prince of Asgard!" Loki spat, snaking his hands back again to the belt. "My father will have you flayed for this."

Tony reached down grabbing Loki by the upper arms and jerking him upright. If he bruised the guy a bit more, Tony would be hard pressed to give a fuck.

Which is when Loki lost it. "Heimdall!"

Despite being just up from a sick bed, Tony had to admit that Loki was making a really creditable effort to break free. Tony was just about to begrudgingly admire what the god was able to do with only adrenaline at this point, when Loki took advantage of the hold Tony had and swung his feet up to slam them against Tony's chest plate.

"Heimdall! Heimdall tell father!"

Shaking him lightly to get his attention, Tony yelled. "Look you, you don't have god like strength, you don't have any freaking magic, what you have is one last chance to behave and do what you're told before I totally go postal on your ass.

Tony shook the god roughly, "Do you understand? Behave."

OoooO

"Okay Bambi, here it is, short and sweet because otherwise Pepper is going to kill me" He waved a hand at Bruce indicating that he needed to hurry and finish examining Loki's condition. "Anyhow, much as I would love to stay and chat, answer your questions and all that, I have a meeting to get to and I am already… How late Jarvis?"

"Thirty seven minutes sir. Ms. Potts is not looking too pleased."

"Yeah. Okay." Tony scrubbed a hand against his eyes tiredly, "Thanks Jarv, tell her I'll be there in ten minutes, fifteen at the latest. Have Dummy meet me in the elevator with a clean shirt, that will save me a few minutes."

He glared at Bruce, whose face had wrinkled up in an attempt not to laugh and then fixed Loki with a stern look.

"Anyhow, you wasted all your time to ask questions by trying to beat the crap out of us and escaping and all that. So here it is. Your mother, who was fine last time I saw her, other than being worried about you that is, gave that pendant to Bruce." He fixed Loki with a baleful eye. "DO NOT ever try to take it off him again. I will show you some vids later so you understand how important that is, without it he turns into a…" Tony cast around, looking for a polite way to express the essence of the Hulk while Bruce was standing right in beside him.

"Enormous green rage monster?" Bruce suggested with a sly glance and a smirk in his voice.

Tony grinned. "Well, I was going to say giant berserker, but hey we can go with that."

Tony's expression became more serious. "Anyhow, your mom was concerned that you might somehow piss Brucie here off and he would pound you into the ground. Which you can't survive in your current state I might remind you. Anyhow, within minutes of meeting him you did piss him off, so there might be something to that 'scrying the future' thing she is supposed to be able to do."

"Why would my mother-" Loki snarled.

"Hush you." Tony commanded giving a shake to the arm he was restraining for Bruce. "As I said, we don't have time for questions and answers right now, so you don't get to talk, all you get to do is listen. I'm going to run through this quick and we'll chat later." Tony took a deep breath. "You were in prison, it wasn't safe for you to stay in fairy land, your mom brought you here for me to keep you safely confined, feed you, clothe you, give you medical attention as needed and supply you with books and writing implements etcetera, etcetera." He fixed a gimlet stare on the godling, "for so long as you behave and don't cause me any grief.

Now I understand that you are a bit freaked out, and since you didn't know what was going on and no one was really hurt, I'm going to give you a pass on what just happened. But don't you ever try shit like that again. Next time your wrist won't be sore and bruised, it will be crushed to pulp. Understand?"

Loki's eyes widened and Tony didn't think it would not have been possible for him to look more frightened, lost or confused if he had tried. And if wasn't for the bruises and contusions that he had from the annoying little shit, he might have felt bad for him.

"Bruce? Damage? What's next?"

"Well nothing that won't hold a few hours," Bruce said slowly, eyes fastened on his patient. "I'd like to do a more detailed examine this evening when you get done with your meeting. I would say a liquid lunch now and if he holds that down, maybe something soft and light for a late dinner." He peered down in Loki's eyes once more, flashing them with the small pen light he held. "Doesn't appear to have a concussion, but I would recommend he rest until I get a chance to look at him again."

"Right. Good. Stay put Dasher and Jarvis will send Lunch down as soon as possible. Got that Jarvis?"

"Yes sir, I will order a tray from the cafeteria immediately. Sir, the time…"

"Yeah Jarv, I'm on it." Tony patted the arm he had been holding as gently as he cold with gauntlets on and then nudged Bruce. "We need to go. Now. See ya in a couple of hours."

Waving Bruce to go ahead of him, Tony turned and grinned as made it to the door and it started sliding shut, "Now you stay right here and be a good boy and daddy will come back and read you a story before bedtime. 'Kay?"

Tony heard an outraged gasp as a pair of livid green eyes disappeared from view as the now frosted door slid shut.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	9. Chapter 9 - Meeting Pepper

**Chapter Summary**: Angst and an emergency, all in a day's work actually when you were the CED of Stark Industries.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As a reminder, this Loki is fundamentally younger than even what we saw in the first movie. While he has been dealing with crap from Asgard due to him being second prince, magic user, knife and staff fighter... ect... Mentally he has had a reset.

He has not yet snapped and decided to do anything like allow Jotun's into Asgard, suffered the trauma from going to Jotunheim, the weapons vault drama and of course the Chitauri visit. So he is working with a younger mindset, one that has not had it's faith in his family shattered.

I have reworked this chapter like a zillion times. It refuses to get any better. Sucks but I just have to move on or I'll never finish. Please enjoy it, for a certain value of enjoy.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 9 – Meeting Pepper**

Tony Stark was an infuriating, ill-mannered bastard as far as Loki was concerned. It had been several weeks since Loki had woken up and first seen the man, and nothing had happened to change his opinion of the irritating Midgardian.

The day he had woken from the healing sleep had not gone well. Loki was ashamed to admit that he had panicked and frankly things had gone downhill from that. He was still at a loss to explain why he had been so scared, why he had immediately responded with flight and fight without really taking a second to think rationally. It is not like Loki had never been detained before by forces hostile to Asgard, but for some reason, this time he couldn't make himself think, this time he had felt raw terror clawing it way into his belly and wrapping around his heart and his mind, which had never failed him in the past, just shut down. For the first time in his life, in a situation that was not immediate peril his mind had shutdown, and for no reason, the man Stark had not been threatening him; there had not even been a whip in sight.

_And why was he even worried about a whip? It wasn't even a very practical method of controlling a prisoner. Punishing one yes, but in the limited space of a cell, it was unlikely to be used to control. Never had a whip been used on Loki, even when even he would have admitted he deserved it for some of the mischief he had caused through the years, and yet… The thought of a whip… The mere thought was enough to make him shiver uncontrollably and cause his heart to contract painfully._

At any rate, he had been detained before and he had waited, watching, learning and eventually bargaining his way out of confinement or figuring out a way to escape. This time he ran, without thinking, he Loki Odinson had ran like a child seeking safety after discovering a Frost Giant under their bed.

And that was perhaps more terrifying that being imprisoned. Seldom had his ability to wait and look for an advantage failed him. The last time it had happened, he had still been a youngling. Granted on the verge of adulthood, but a youngling none the less. But this time he had felt like such a deep fear, fear of the unknown, fear of being restrained, a fear of monsters lurking in the dark waiting, so he didn't think, he didn't reason, he just ran like a frightened child

Loki felt almost a physical pain at the thought of monsters. There had been a monster in the room, the healer named Bruce Banner turned into a huge green monster when angry. Feeling dizzy, Loki sat on the edge of the small metal bed. Stark had a rectangle of glass Midgard used to display recordings, he had returned several hours after Loki's pathetic escape attempt and had showed him images of Banner as an uncontrolled monster. Banner's berserker was bigger than the largest Asgardian Warrior; it was as large as Frost Giants were reputed to be. In his current vulnerable state, Banner would be able to break him like a twig. Loki had not felt so helpless since he was a very young child.

Shivering he pulled the blanket up from the bottom of the bed, draping it across his shoulders he wedged himself into the corner, tucking his cold feet underneath him and wrapping the blanket tightly around himself. He tucked his hands underneath his arm, partially for warmth, partially for self-comfort but mainly to avoid looking at the healing cut still visible on the back of one of them. Banner had washed and bandaged his cuts that night. But Stark had spoken the truth; Loki no longer had his magic or his Æsir form. His current body seemed to be no different than that of the Midgardian Stark, his Æsir strength and healing abilities were gone. No wonder he had been recaptured so easily.

Loki's heart began pounding harder and harder, making his chest feel like it was shrinking, like it was growing smaller and squeezing his heart in a fist, making it harder and harder for it to beat properly. He felt dizzy and weak and ill, his head and his heart both hurt. A thrill of horror shot through him, was he totally mortal now? Was he… dying?

Dying? He could very well be, mortals didn't heal correctly and they lived pitifully short lives. Very short, very fragile lives. Every day could be bringing him closer and closer to death.

He felt sweat break out on his temples as an icy shiver raced down his back. Mortal? How was it even possible? His head ached as if a band was tightening and constricting across his skull just as it was constricting across his chest.

His mother knew he was here.

Trying to catch his breath, Loki didn't even register the gasping sounds he was making. His chest felt like Mjölnir was sitting on it.

_Why would his think that pain felt like Mjölnir holding him down?_

The beast wore a pendant on his chest that restricted his shape shifting.

A pendant that Loki's mother had given to him.

He was shaking so hard his bones hurt. He would have given anything to be able to tell himself that Stark lied. But Loki had spent too many years at court ferreting out the lies of others not to know when someone was doing it to him. He fell over on the bed with a strangled sob. He had been in prison in Asgard. For what? No matter how hard he tried to remember why he had been in prison he couldn't remember anything. All he could come up with was a fear of pain and monsters.

Stark told him that it wasn't safe for him to stay in a prison in Asgard.

His mother brought him here.

What did he do that was so heinous that even the memory of it was ripped from his mind, leaving only a crippling unknowing fear behind?

_His mother knew about it. Stark had shown him the contract with her signature._

Loki's eyes were open, you shouldn't be able to see sound he knew, but somehow he could. His breathing was restricted to short shallow breaths so many black spots were dancing in front of him that he couldn't see the other side of his cell anymore. Sound faded and then became painfully, glitteringly sharp.

_Heimdall wouldn't answer his call and his mother knew he was here. _

He was alone, defenseless, caged and dying. And worse than all of that, the one person he thought he could always count on had abandoned him helpless and at the mercy of his enemies_._

_There was only one person in all the realms that Loki had been sure loved him. And now he knew for sure that she didn't. _

A black whirlpool opened up beneath Loki and sucked him down to drown.

OoooO

Bam!

"Loki!"

Bam!

"Loki can you hear me?!"

Bam! Bam! BAM!

"LOKI!"

"Jarvis, open this damn door!"

"Ms. Potts, it could be very dangerous to go in there."

"Jarvis, I am going to get very dangerous if you don't open this damn door right now! Call and see if Bruce is available, but you open this door right now!"

Sound was stabbing into his eyes. Loki flinched painfully, his hands shaking and twitching uncontrollably as sounds that had been distant grew louder and almost excruciatingly sharp and then became muffled in turn. Waves of sound made him nauseous, senses tangled, alternately confused and fading then compensating and blinding. Dimly he could feel his body shaking, cracking and arching uncontrollably until he felt like he was going to shatter in to hundreds of sharp shards.

"Oh hell Jarvis! Is he having a heart attack!?"

"I believe it is another anxiety attack Ms. Potts. Mister Odinson seems to be prone to them."

"Another? Jarvis how often does he have them?"

"Two to three times a week. This seems to be one of the mild ones."

"Oh my god! Does Tony know?"

"I alert Mister Stark during every occurrence. He has ordered me to monitor the situation and instructed me to let him know if the sensors indicate that he is going into something else immediately life threatening. If so, I am instructed to call him and Doctor Banner or Mister Stark's personal physician if Doctor Banner is not available."

"Are you serious Jarvis?" The female voice asked angrily.

Any interest Loki had in their conversation, which had been small to start with, vanished as he felt hot bile rise up in this throat. Heaving, he struggled to turn onto his side. The hot tears leaking from the corner of his eyes, running unheeded into the hair at his temples were the least of his worries. Somewhere in the back of his mind some part of him was screaming that he needed to turn if he didn't want to choke again. Painful, racking shudders that seemed to catch in his chest intensified until he was spewing, with painful force everything he had eaten that day.

His heaving finally receded and he found that he had made it not only onto his side, but by a stroke of luck his head was hanging over the edge of the bed. A cold damp towel began wiping his face clear and then he was helped into a semi-sitting position and encouraged to sip from a glass of cool water that was placed to his lips. Swallowing triggered a very bad moment, but was able to fight down his gag reflex and keep from heaving water immediately back up.

"Than' you," he said weakly lying back down with the wall solid and sure at his back. "Most… kind." He murmured as a soft hand stoked his wet hair back away from his face before he slipped down again into the darkness.

OoooO

"Loki," called a low rumbling voice.

Warm hands patted his cheek, "Come on sport. I need you to wake up a little bit. Can you do that for me?"

Rolling his head away from the hand was an exercise in pain. Loki bit back a groan, he felt as if he had been beaten. Just moving his head had made muscles in his jaw, neck, shoulders and even upper arms protest. He opened his eyes to have them almost immediately droop half closed.

A hand gently turned his head back towards the speaker and his one eyelid was lifted and a light was flicked across his pupil. "Hey. Can you wake up a bit more for me?" the voice asked.

With only a bit of difficulty, he managed to focus on the speaker. Banner. The monster. Marvelous. He tried focusing again and was rewarded for a moment with a view of a slender woman with reddish blonde hair standing beside Banner before his eyes slid shut again.

"No." The hand was back patting his face. "You need to wake up a bit; I need to talk to you okay."

Irritated, Loki huffed and pushed the hands away, before letting his own collapse on his chest, with an annoyed mumble, the cuff and cable cool through the thin material of his tank top. He was so tired, he wanted to sleep and never wake up.

It was a cold wet wash cloth, again being pressed against his forehead, cheeks and neck that finally brought him a moment of clarity.

Blinking water out of his eye, Loki frowned at the healer, but before he could speak his displeasure the man smiled and said, "Better, that's much better." Not that Loki would have agreed with him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Banner had drawn his chair over and was seated beside the bed, he handed the washcloth to the lady beside him, taking from her a glass with a straw in it.

"I want you to take a few sips of this to help soothe your throat," Banner said putting the straw to his lips. "Swish it around a bit, it will help rinse your mouth out and make you feel better.

Moving his head away from the straw Loki croaked, "What?"

"Just take a few sips rinse your mouth and swallow it, you'll feel better."

Frowning at Banner, he took a deep breath and asked again in a raspy voice, "What is it?"

"Oh." The healer chuckled, "Just some Ginger Ale," Loki's frown deepened and so he elaborated.

"A beverage with a bit of ginger root in it, Reed's Ginger Ale as a matter of fact. It's normally served cold and bubbly, but room temperature and flat works better for right now, it's something light that will take the taste out of your mouth, moisten your throat which is most likely raw and has enough ginger root in it to help settle your nausea until I the shot I'm going to give you enters your system."

"Please drink it Loki, it will help," said the slender lady.

Shooting her a puzzled glance, Loki tipped his head down and caught the straw the healer was still holding for him. It tasted strange, but not bad. And it did take away the terrible taste in his mouth and felt wonderful going down his abused throat. So wonderful that he was embarrassed at the involuntarily noise of displeasure he made when the straw was removed.

"Okay, Loki. Pepper here," Banner gestured towards the woman beside him, "tells me you've been having panic attacks and bouts of vomiting pretty regularly. And I can see that you're dehydrated and your throat is pretty torn up." The healer pulled a few strange objects out of a white container sitting on the edge of the bed. "I going to give you a shot of something that will help with the nausea and then we will start an IV in your arm so I can rehydrate faster."

Banner opened up one of the packages and showed the contents to Loki.

"No!" Loki shouted hoarsely, eyes widening at the sight of the long needle the man held. He immediately scrambled away from the healer wedging himself in the corner at the top of the bed.

"Oh. Hey. No." Banner protested after a moment of confusion. "It's a medical procedure, not torture or anything."

Loki hated Midgard, he hated that he could feel tears burning in his eyes, but most of all he hated the unreasoning, overwhelming fear that he couldn't identify, but that told him that the object being held up could cause pain in so many ways. He didn't know how he knew this, but the fear of that pain caused his heart to start pounding again.

"Hey, no, calm down." Banner pleaded anxiously, "Okay. No shot, no needles. We can do this another way, it will be slower, but we can do it. Loki, just calm down okay."

"I'm going to kill Tony the minute he gets back from his trip," the woman named Pepper said in a low throbbing voice.

"I might help you," Banner told her grimly and he picked up the container off the bed, thrusting the offending syringe in it and handing it to the woman and waving her away.

"There," he said soothingly. "I got rid of it. I just need you to breathe with me okay? In and out… In and out." He patted Loki's leg gently. "Shhhhh. It's gone, we won't use that. Okay?"

_Was that him making that whining noise?_

Banner gave him a pill, which he had a hard time swallowing due the size of the pill and how raw his throat was. The healer then let him drink the rest of the ale before patting him on the leg and telling Loki he'd be back in a few minutes. The woman named Pepper stood watching him from outside of his cell until he returned. Banner carried a big silver bucket full off ice and bottles of that strange ale and another type of drink. As the healer explained that the brightly colored bottles contained minerals and other things his dehydrated body needed, the woman prowled angrily around his cell making furious tch'ing noises.

Banner made him drink a warm Ade drink, a red one, before giving him a draught of some sort before calling out to the Watcher Jarvis.

"Jarvis, this is going to make him a bit sleepy, but it will help the headache he almost certainly has. When he gets up, I want him to slowly drink several of these drinks. Could you keep an eye on him and make sure he remembers?"

"Of course Doctor Banner," said the Watcher.

"Okay Loki? Can you do that for me? You can alternate which them as you drink them. Take small sips, wait a few minutes, another small sip. It should take you at least a half an hour to drink one. Tell Jarvis when you start, he'll help time you to make sure you don't drink too fast. Understand?"

Loki nodded feeling better but still wretched and his mind felt stretched.

"By this evening you need to have drunk at least four of them okay?"

The doctor lifted his head to again speak to the watcher, "Jarvis, only a clear soup and jell-o for meals today. And more drinks as he can handle them without making himself feel sick, no matter what time it is. Okay?"

"Certainly Doctor Banner," Jarvis said.

"If you start to feel nauseous again tell Jarvis and I'll bring you down some more medicine." Dark brown eyes smiled as Banner tapped him on the chest lightly, "Don't try to tough it out. You don't need to be throwing up any more than you have been." The mortal stood watching him a moment, before pushing the desk chair back where it belonged.

"Loki," the red haired woman dropped a hand down on his thinly blanketed foot, shaking it slightly to get his attention.

_Pepper, the man called her Pepper, the Watcher called her Potts._

"Bruce and I will check on you in the morning. But if you start to feel bad, you tell Jarvis and he will tell us immediately. Okay?"

After he just looked at the woman for a minute, not answering, she patted his foot again before leaving the room with Banner. He fell into an exhausted sleep before they had made it past the second set of doors

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	10. Chapter 10 - Accounting Practices

**Chapter Summary**: Dollars and Cents and Norse Gods have what in common? Tony is about to find out. Because it is the holidays, I am popping this up a day early. Enjoy.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 10 – Accounting Practices**

Loki was sitting at his desk reading when the walls of his cell fogged up. The first time he had noticed it, he had thought it was frost, but since the glass remained the same temperature and the fogging only occurred when something was being delivered to the antechamber, he knew it was something the mortals were doing to keep him from seeing what was going on outside his cell. It was, he admitted to himself, fairly clever for a technically backwards race without magic and he was dying to know how they did it. Not that he would ask. Sooner or later he would find out, or someone would mention it.

No, he would never ask. Questions told people too much about what he was thinking. It was better to just wait and listen.

Knowing that he couldn't see through the glass no matter how he tried and that he couldn't hear anything outside his cell save what they choose to allow, Loki went back to reading his book, Lessons in Electrical Circuits Volume One. He had a notebook beside him, that he occasionally made notes in. It amused him that the pages of his notebook were held together with a metal spiral of all things and that the cover was a children's illustration of the red and gold armor that Stark had worn on the roof. Apparently the man's hubris knew no bounds.

"Mister Odinson, you have been requested to sit on your bed, Mister Stark is here to see you."

Loki would have liked to scowl. Having to retreat to his bed so the tether connected to his left wrist could be considerably shortened was a major annoyance for him. But he doesn't want anyone to know what did and didn't get to him, so with apparent good grace he complied. Besides it wasn't worth fighting the drugs they were giving him to get really angry. And anyhow the tether could be retracted with or without him moving, dragging him to the bed with a force he couldn't resist. So inwardly seething, but outwardly composed Loki settled on the bed with his back to the wall as was expected.

A few moments later the inner door opened and Stark was resting his shoulder against the doorframe, leaning there with crossed arms. Stark was trying to seem calm and at ease, but Loki could read the lies that the body tells as easily as he does those that fall from people's lips. Stark was angry.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, elbows on his knees resting his head in the palm of his hands, he gifted Stark with a mocking little pout. "Ah, Stark. I was so hoping that the lovely Ms. Potts would be visiting."

Tony huffed a little bit of a laugh before walking over to the desk area. "Yeah Slick, I bet you were," he said. "So…. You seem a bit calmer this afternoon. Brucie find an anxiety cocktail that worked for you did he?"

_Wretched creature_, Loki thought sourly, watching the man without answering.

Tony poked at the book lying on the desk, "Who brought the book down?" He asked.

He touched the book's cover a moment, before flipping the notebook open, not that it would do the mortal any good since Loki was using a runic script to write his notes.

Frowning Stark looked up with a puzzled expression. "How is it you read English if this is the language you write in?" He asked curiously.

Loki breifly debated ignoring him, he was annoying and loathesome, but he was someone to talk to.

"I couldn't read 'English' of course; Ms. Potts and your watcher provided me with a child's program that teaches the Midgardian language to the very young." Loki said outwardly impassive, but worrying at the odd thoughts he kept having that seemed to suggest that he should have already known how read the language. That in it's self was odd, since All Speak was exactly that, so when would he have learned it? Oh he knew several Midgardian languages that he had used spells to learn to read many centuries ago, but not this English.

"Jarvis, not Watcher, his name is Jarvis." Tony said pulling the chair away from the desk placing it further away from the bed beside the desk before sitting down.

"Hummm." Tony made a strange face, "I've only been gone two weeks, Pepper just started yelling at me about you ten days ago and you've already learned to read English and are starting to read engineering books?" He seemed puzzled, but since Loki had spent the last several weeks feeling equally puzzled, he really couldn't sympathize with the mortal.

So he just shrugged, not wanting to even think about those horrible days he spent reading and listening about phonics before receiving the loan of a whole box of brightly colored books that had been outgrown by the daughter of one of Ms. Potts' assistants. If Loki never had to read about rodents that demanded baked goods or a club full of underage child care givers again he would be ecstatic.

Thankfully since then, Loki had made good use of the various dictionaries Ms. Potts had also provided, one apparently geared towards children and he was now able to split his time between science books and history books for obvious reasons and something called contemporary novels to learn about modern Midgardian culture.

"So…" Stark reached over and flipped a page of the electronic book with a forefinger, "Do you understand this?" He asked curiously.

"Not really," Loki answered shortly, not taking his eyes off of Stark.

"But you're still reading it?" Tony persisted. "Why?"

"Background information."

Stark made another little humm noise but then continued to look at him, obviously waiting for more of an answer. When he didn't continue Stark looked around the cell which had changed a bit in the last two weeks. In addition to the various books on the desk, the bed now had an extra pillow and blanket. Also his wardrobe that he had been wearing since he had woken consisting of thin shorts and thin tight sleeveless tops had been augmented. Loki now also had on a pair of pants and a long sleeve pullover made of a closely knitted material with a soft fleecy inside, he also had socks and a pair of soleless leather slippers obviously intended for indoor use. While not the clothing he was used to wearing, it did make him feel less vulnerable to at least be clothed this much.

"So, you a bit more comfortable now?" Tony asked waving a hand towards his new clothes, the bed and the book.

Which was an incredibly stupid question as far as Loki was concerned. Of course clothes that were warmer and didn't make him feel exposed made him more comfortable as did the extra bedding and of course the books which gave him something to do when he wasn't sleeping or exercising made him more comfortable. Or perhaps it would be more polite to say as comfortable as a person could be while imprisoned in a different realm. He debated ignoring the question, but in the end decided that since things could be ever so much worse, politeness might be a better strategy.

"Yes, thank you." Loki said keeping his voice and face impassive.

"Yeah, I can see you're just overwhelmed," the man scoffed pulling his hands out of his pockets and crossing his arms defensively. "But hey, don't thank me, thank your mother, she's paying for it."

"You mean Asgard is paying for it," he corrected.

"Now did I say that? No Prince Prozac, I said your mother, I meant your mother. You know, Frigga? Tall, blonde, pretty good looking for an older lady. The queen? Her. Personally." Tony shook his head and tsk'd. "Did you see anywhere on that contract I showed you that said that Asgard was footing the bill for taking care of your ass? No."

"And Thor thinks you're the smart brother."

"My Mother? Personally?" Loki frowned, confused. His mother wasn't poor of course, but most of her money came from the crown coffers, since her personal estates were not large. And how did this annoying mortal know Thor?

Stark tried several times to steer the conversation towards questions about the BiFrost, general magic use and metallurgy, but Loki kept asking him about why he was here rather than Asgard. And how was it that Stark knew his brother Thor. Since Stark wasn't answering any of Loki's questions about what had happened and why he was here, Loki was certainly not going to answer any of Stark's.

Besides, it bothered him that his mother was paying to keep him here rather than Asgard.

Stark continued to shower him with questions and rather than answering, Loki kept responding with his own. Questions like how much his mother was paying to keep him here and what exchange rate Stark was using to bill her, using since there was not a common coinage. And since Loki had centuries much more experienced at ignoring annoying people, his questions at least got an answer or sorts.

"Fucking hell if I know." Stark groused, latching on to the last question, one apparently that he felt inclined to answer. "If I get you copies of the spread sheets we are using and have Jarvis go over the charges will you at least answer one of my questions?" The mortal demanded exasperated.

"Perhaps," Loki said looking up from under his brows, "Spread sheets are what you call ledger entries?" When Tony nodded Loki continued, "But I would require that the information be clear and properly explained so that I understand it fully before I will answer."

The mortal rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. Whatever. Jarvis send Dummy down with one of the big tablets and see what you can do to get Comet here up to speed on spread sheets in general and his account in particular." Stark straightened up looking at Loki and told him, "I'll be back to ask my question once you're caught up on that."

Stark stood up to leave and then paused a moment before gesturing towards the silver bucket of ice and drinks that had been placed in the antechamber each morning with Loki's meal. "And if you start to feel bad or need more of those to drink, tell Jarvis to call me right away okay?"

As if Loki would ever ask for anything from his jailors.

OoooO

It had taken three days for Donder to totally understand the spread sheet explanations. Although from watching the video feed that he had piped into his lab while Jarvis ran through the explanations, Tony suspected that the god completely understood the finance part with in a few hours. And most of that time would have been him and Jarvis deciding on the exchange rate between Earthgard and Vikingard so he could compare prices.

However, for those three days, while Tony worked on his suits and tinkered with a few projects, he watched as Loki kept side tracking from asking about the financial stuff to explore the actual operations of the tablet and the spreadsheet program itself. All Loki's questions had been perfectly politely phrased of course and all in an effort to completely understand the process of course. And they were almost all bullshit of course, since the god was apparently determined that he was not going to admit to understanding his accounts until he understood the underlying mechanics of the hardware and software they were presented to him on.

Tony felt like tearing his hair out at the delay, but he had to admit the guy caught on fast.

But at last even the trickster god couldn't drag the explanations out any longer and they finally finished. Which was great as far as Tony was concerned, in the morning Tony could visit, ask his question and get his weekly face to face visual inspection taken care of also. Best of all, it would be totally legit since this was a new week.

_Take that Pepper Potts._

Tony spent the next hour tinkering with his suit and thinking about which question he really wanted answered first. And wondering what else, besides answers he couldn't provide, that he could use as a bribe to get the god to identify the properties of those metals that Frigga had given him and maybe discuss the BiFrost.

It was maybe an hour later when the sound of a soft grunt made him look back up at the screens he had forgotten to tell Jarvis to shut off. There he saw Loki, stripped down to his tank top and boxers, twisting and turning in the middle of his cell in ways that would make a professional gymnast ninja ballerina green with of envy. Or a cat even. Slow, smooth, mesmerizing moves. Moves that Tony didn't realize a six foot plus, guy could make. Even if he was totally cut.

Tony had seen Pepper doing yoga and had even worked out with her a few times to her videos, but he wasn't sure he had ever seen a guy do routines like this. At one point Loki stood in the middle of his cell on the tips of his toes, back arched, arms hyper-extended overhead and his fingers laced with palms pointing to the ceiling. Additionally, this position caused his tank top ride up, allowing an excellent view of his well-defined lower abs. He held that position without a quaver for at least six minutes before bending over to place his palms flat on the floor and slowly lifting his legs first up into a regular handstand and then a full side split, back up into a handstand and then hyper extending his back until his feet were flat on the floor as he stood up again.

Not that any of the moves the god made weren't moves Tony had never seen before. Hell, he watched the winter Olympics after all, it's just they were all in fricking stop-motion. There was no floor routine flow, no momentum to carry the moves through. Instead Blitzen would move a bit and then freeze, holding impossible looking positions for a minute or two before moving a bit more. Sometimes it took Loki several minutes to complete a walk over handstand for instance.

And Tony didn't even want to think about that whole full side split that ended up with the god's inner thighs, pelvis, chest and shoulders flat on the floor. That one made Tony's own muscles wince in sympathy. It was also the one also made him decide that perhaps he needed to supply his 'guest' with some lycra support yoga shorts, because using regular boxers as shorts just wasn't cutting it.

At least not for Tony's peace of mind.

"Jarvis, cut the feed to our guest level please," he asked hoarsely as the god moved into a new set of static strength poses, this set starting out with slow motion handstand pushups.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes - **And yes I had a lot of fun envisioning this chapter. ;)

Fixed due to earlier comment by fan-de-carlisle-cullen - The chapter was good. I liked it except for one thing. Loki - like all Asgardians - speaks and reads all languages ever known to man. Don't forget that he is also a scholar.

RM - Speaking, yeah I can get behind that, after all it is ALL SPEAK. Reading? Not so much, and while a scholar, we haven't seen any evidence that he or anyone from Asgard has been here in a boat load of years, and last they were it was not England. So even if he had learned to read it would have been a European language(s). Now I will grant you that All Speak, that whole genius thing (comic verse) and the fact that he is a scholar would make it so much easier to learn to read... in days even. But to my thinking, he would have learned prior to the invasion when he was setting everything up, but that is in the timeframe of the memories that were removed... leaving only little nagging tags that he feels he should know something but doesn't. Thanks for the comment!

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	11. Chapter 11- Just a bit bothered

**Chapter Summary**: Tony's deal with a Trickster god goes about as well as expected. Which is not very.

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Chapter 11 – Just a bit bothered

After that little exercise show of the day before, Tony was not entirely comfortable entering Loki's cell. It wasn't that Tony was never interested in good looking guys, he was occasionally, but they weren't his normal cup of coffee. But damn… Despite being a maniac killer, this guy was ripped, but not all bulked up muscles like Thor or Captain Spangles. Instead Loki was slender like a male model, all kind of… Not that it mattered anyway since he was totally into Pepper… But shit, the guy did have legs that went on for forever and limber, hell yeah.

At any rate, Tony couldn't avoid going in person indefinitely since Pepper had demanded that he check on Loki visually at least once a day and visit the god face to face at least once a week. So he might as well get this week's face time over with while asking his question. But for some reason the whole visit felt awkward to Tony, even if Prancer wasn't in boxer shorts and twisted up like a pretzel.

"So. About my question," Tony said as the door slid open.

A startled glance was tossed his way, but then green eyes narrowed. "There are charges on my account that I wish to contest Stark." Loki interrupted.

The god had been lying on his stomach reading when Tony had opened the door. The trickster's sock covered feet were up in the air crossed at the ankles, one fist supporting his chin, while his other, tethered hand dangled over the foot of the bed, turning the pages of a large physics book lying on the floor. He reminded Tony of nothing so much as a kid at summer camp whiling away a rainy day.

"Yeah, and I want my question answered," Tony countered, ignoring the long lean body that had rolled onto its side to regard him. Tony was just glad the god was wearing long jersey knit pants with his tank top rather than boxers. Not that the rucked up thin tank top left much to the imagination even if it had been pulled down.

While Tony propped himself up in the doorway, the god sat up on the edge of the bed, glaring briefly at tether attached to his cuff, which refused to allow him more slack even if he moved slowly.

"Fine. What is your question," Loki asked looking at Tony with the air of someone who was used to being patient with small annoying children.

All righty! Science! Something to take his mind off muscle definition, Tony couldn't stop a large grin from spreading across his face but he did manage to not rub his hands together in anticipation. He moved the desk chair over to what was becoming his accustomed spot of beside the desk and right by the door and sat down.

"Tell me about the BiFrost," Tony said happily.

"No," came the god's flat reply.

What?

What kind of aggravating shit was Loki trying to pull? After all, Tony had made sure his spreadsheet question was answered. Three freaking days answered.

"Hey! A deal's a deal. Just answer the question." He told the blank faced deity sitting across from him.

Loki smirked eyes alight with mischief, "I will be more than happy to answer your question as soon as you ask one.

Tony glared. "I just did," he told the grinning god with a warning note in his voice.

"No Stark you asked for a story, a dissertation as it were. I only agreed to answer one question." Loki replied, amusement written large across his features.

"So how is it that Jarvis spent three days answering your questions and you refuse to answer mine?" Tony demanded, starting to become more than a little pissed.

Tony was rewarded with a smirk, "I would venture to suggest that it is because I was more specific with what I wanted for my side of the bargain than you were for yours. Also I did not refuse to answer a question; I refused to 'Tell' you about the BiFrost." Loki's brow lifted in amusement, he clapped his hand together and then spread them out. Not unlike a magician's flourish at the end of a trick. "There, I have answered your question. Now let us move on to my problems with your accounting practices."

"What? Hey no! That wasn't my question." Tony yelped, scowling before he quite frankly started to pout. Okay, technically he was screwed. And the rat bastard Asgardian who had just played him had been most likely laying for a chance to do so.

Fucker.

Tony spent the next hour being challenged to justify charges that were on the Loki's cost sheet. Apparently besides being a psychotic wizard, the bastard was also an accountant and a quartermaster. It seemed that his Eminence thought that the food charges were too high. Since the tower cafeteria closed after lunch, Tony normally ordered dinner as take-out for them both. As the restaurants that Tony ordered from were rarely exactly cheap, those meals resulted in prices that offended the penny pinching god.

Loki's proposed solution to the problem was a small refrigerator and judicious purchasing of fruits and vegetables that could be eaten raw, coupled with lunchmeats, breads and some preserved food that didn't necessary need to be cooked like tuna and peanut butter. The savings on evening and weekend meals, even adding in the cost of grocery delivery would easily pay for the refrigerator in just over two months.

"Rudolf, I do have refrigerators already available on the property." He said wearily thinking of the entire bank of empty fridges on the entertainment floor. He looked up from the figures he had been reluctantly reviewing wondering how this was turning into as bad a whipping as one of Pepper's frigging finance meetings.

So he was taken aback by the speculative look he received from the god.

"And your valuation for use of space in these refrigerators per quarter would be?" Loki asked in a very polite yet unyielding manner, which reminded Tony of that bastard Darisen, his head of Accounting.

"What the hell Reindeer Games?" Tony huffed, starting to get really pissed. "Do you think I am going to pad the bill?"

Here at least, the god had the grace to look slightly discomfited.

"By no means Stark," he apologized. "I assure you I meant no slur upon your honesty; this is merely force of habit I assure you."

"To nitpick over every piddling little thing? Who the fuck develops habits like that?" Tony demanded more than slightly exasperated.

Loki looked at him incredulously before his brows furled in a deep frown.

"What exactly do you think second princes do Stark? We manage. Since I was old enough to leave my mother's hall, I have been rotated through every area of the court. When I wasn't delivering unpalatable orders to those not quite high enough to merit the attention of the King or Crown Prince, my main responsibility was taking care of the various finances attached to my current service."

Okay, didn't see that one coming, Tony thought, it had never occurred to him that Loki would have ever done anything more than quaff mead with his brother and lounge around in goat horns all day. But if he did think about it, it did made sense. After all, no matter how good Thor was at smiting stuff, he didn't seem to be the kind of guy to make sure all the balls stayed in the air when it came to juggling the day to day running of a kingdom. Doubtless those thankless tasks would have to be handled by someone else. And who would know better what had to be done that the spare heir.

"Well. Yeah…" Tony grimaced in something suspiciously close to sympathy. "I'm guessing that must have made you real popular."

"You have no idea," said the god in a flat hard voice. "At any rate, if my mother is personally paying for this, for reasons you are withholding from me, I would like to see the charges are not unwarranted or excessive. Her bridal estates were not large and should they be exhausted my next prison might be worse."

"Fine, fine. Anything else you want to nitpick… I mean challenge?"

And there were. Several items. Tony wanted to slam his head on the table beside him as Loki meticulously went over the charges he deemed excessive line by line. The biggest of course was the charge for the space he was using and the costs to heat and light it. Loki of course did not want his mother to be fraudulently charged for the whole floor when he only was using less than two hundred square feet of it.

"Hey!" Tony yelped, stung by the accusation that he was trying to pull one over on the Queen of Asgard.

"Stark, if it was not for the charges incurred by my mother I would not be assisting you in the oversight of this contract. Please understand that. However this one time, in the spirit of cooperation, I am going to help you. While this is not the information you were thinking of getting for your question, I am not obligated to tell you and it is free."

Loki's emerald eyes bored into Tony's and he continued in a very serious manner.

"Asgardian penalties for breach of contract and fraud are quite severe, especially when they concern royal contracts. You would be well advised to keep that in mind,"

"Well Geeze. Thank you for that Poindexter," Tony retorted, "Very helpful information from the guy who is already in jail."

"Ah, yes. Let's us talk about that."

"Hell no. I have a non-disclosure clause and I wouldn't want to breach my contract by telling you something I'm not supposed to." Tony wrinkled his face before smiling smugly at the god's darkening expression. "But hey, nice try there Blitzen."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," the god retorted somewhat sourly, not nearly as impassive looking as he had been just moments earlier.

"Yeah. I did." Tony was feeling pretty smug; he knew the god was getting pissed. "So since I have no intention of breaching my contract, let alone defrauding anyone I'm not too worried."

Okay.

Tony was totally not expecting the look he was getting. Prince Pencil Pusher, who had already been pissed at him, was copping a righteous haughtiness and damn if it wasn't the same look he always got from his Head Accountant. He wondered if accountants had to practice certain expressions in front of a mirror and maybe pass a test on them or something. Accountants, annoying bastards, every single one of them and sadly Loki was one of their breed. Who knew?

"Stark, it is my understanding that the Queen of Asgard is being charged for the whole floor because the excess space is to be available for a secure exercise area. Correct?"

"Yeah-"

"And in fact…" Loki interrupted looking down at his notes a minute, "Even though I did not even step a foot in the area at all in the last two months, nor have I ever used it for exercise since I got here she is still charged for it. Correct?"

Tony opened his mouth totally intending to hotly reply, but a complete lack of a good answer… Other than he had forgotten to allow outside exercise periods, coupled with the raised brow Comet was throwing his way made him unable to even come up with a bull shit justification.

"While I realize that you cannot use the remainder of the space for much with me being here, the lighting and heating costs are not inconsiderable and could be dispensed with since it is not being used. Could they not?"

"You've been pretty sick, I wasn't sure if you were up for it," Tony offered feebly. "Using it as an exercise area that is."

And there it came, His Royal Smugness, lip curled on one side, brow raised and that 'Don't even go there' look in his eye. Tony had been wondering when 'that Loki' was going to show up.

"Ah." Loki took the note book beside him and made a notation in those fricking runes that Tony couldn't read before asking with mock gentleness, "You don't think perhaps that the lack of exercise or activity might not have contributed to the panic attacks and their severity Mister Stark?"

He looked calmly up at Tony, his head titled in polite inquiry.

"You studied law in Asgard didn't you?"

"I did tell you that I was rotated through all the branches of Asgard's goverment yes?" Loki said with a quick shark like grin.

"No, I'm not talking about keeping their books or anything. You," Tony pointed an accusing finger at the god, "Studied law. Didn't ya?"

Loki shrugged, "Not studied per say, but when you have been rotated through the Logmars service several times, you either learn what they are doing or they will bury you." He again flashed Tony a quick tooth filled grin, "Let us just say that after the first time I was in charge of them, I did enough private reading that they found me increasingly difficult to bury."

Well Thor had said that his brother was smart and Tony had watched him totally master the use of a Stark pad to run an accounting program in just several hours. And he was a couple of centuries old too, so it made sense that he had learned a thing or two. Which made Tony wonder how come Point Break was so… Okay he was going to have to go with not bright and that was being generous. Thor was a nice enough guy and all but with the extra centuries of time to learn stuff, surely he should have been… More.

"Look, Chintzy McGee," Tony said tiredly, "just go over the bill with Jarvis, anything reasonable he'll fix. Any refunds that need to be made, he'll make this quarter, any savings you can figure out in the future let Jarvis know. As long as it doesn't jeopardize safety or security Jarvis can authorize them." Tony stood up to make his escape before he became ensnared in another dispute over the cost of toothpaste or something else stupid.

"Oh and Jarvis," Tony said before he turned to leave, "I want you to notify me anytime something on the contract that isn't being adhered to okay?"

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes - **I thought about this chapter a lot. I mean, granted there is feasting and sparing and of course glorious battle every now and again... but still. Somehow the whole mess has to stay running, building projects don't run themselves and accounts payable do have to be signed off on after all. And someone has to oversee all of it at the higher levels. And heaven's knows it won't be Thor, he most likely had his own career path mapped out in between drinking and wenching and battle. He has to learn Lying and cheating, errr, I mean diplomacy and of course where all the skeletons are buried throughout the nine realms. So it would most likely fall to the spare heir, who already had the lying, cheating, diplomacy crap down, and possibly even helped find out about the skeletons in the first place. Although I would bet that Heimdall was a big help there... the voyeuristic old fart.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	12. Chapter 12 - Play time with no toys

**Chapter Summary**: Things start looking up for Loki, then he starts to over think them. Never a good idea.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 12 – Play time with no toys **

Several hours after Stark left, the doors to Loki's cell opened and a clasp on his cuff retracted. While his first impulse was to dash out the doors, he instead sat there wondering if this was a ruse of some sort.

"Mister Odinson," Loki looked up suddenly. "I must inform you that all exits on this floor are secured and will remain that way as long as you are not in your cell."

"So I am permitted to leave? For how long, may I ask?" Loki asked calmly, hiding his hesitation he stood and approached the door.

"Initially for two hours a day when Sir is on the premises." Jarvis replied. "I have no objection to scheduling it at the time of your choosing so long as he is in the building."

Loki walked through the antechamber for the first time since his aborted escape attempt. "And should he leave unexpectedly?" he asked the Watcher, inwardly excited that he might be able to map out Stark's schedule. Not that he was yet sure what he would do even if he did escape, with Heimdall not answering his call for transport and his family supposedly behind his being incarcerated here on Midgard. But it was still something to plan for just in case.

"Then you will have to wait until he returns to use the rest of your allotted time."

Walking over to the windows he saw that he was indeed hundreds of feet in the air and apparently in the middle of a large city. During his brief escape attempt he had really been too distracted to notice much of anything so he studied every detail he could make out.

The calm voice paused a moment as Loki walked over and pressed his fingertip to the window. "I must inform you that the windows on this floor are unbreakable shatterproof glass and that any attempt to damage them or anything else will cause your exercise privileges to be revoked for an indefinite period of time. This will also occur if you do not immediately return to your room and replace your wrist cuff when ordered to do so."

"I understand," Loki told him, wondering why Jarvis had made a point of mentioning that the windows on this floor were unbreakable. That must mean that the windows on the other floors could be broken. That was surely something to remember even if it was not immediately apparent how much use it might be to him now.

In the end he spent almost all of his allotted time walking slowly around the floor, fingertips trailing on the glass, talking to the Watcher and seeing what questions he could get him to answer. While he would not identify where on Midgard Loki was being kept, or anything really about the building itself, the Watcher would identify and explain other things. Loki was fascinated by self-propelled carriages and wagons in the street since most intercity transport in Asgard proper was by foot or horse rather than skybarge. And the idea that all of the people disappearing as they walked down the sidewalks were actually going down steps to a 'train' of carriages that ran underneath the city was very interesting. Tunnels that ran entirely around and throughout the city, Loki wanted to definitely learn more about those.

Due to the angle of view, it impossible to see the base of the building he was in, except for one part that jutted out. That section was very low, with a glass roof perhaps only a floor or two tall. He was too high up to see within it, but he did notice people entering and exiting it sporadically. Or rather sporadically until later in the afternoon when a positive flood of people exited going in all different directions and many of them vanishing down into the stairways that had been described to him.

Loki watched them and noticed that several other buildings that he had a better view of were experiencing the same exodus.

"Watc-, Jarvis, what time is it please?"

"5:14 p.m. Mister Odinson. You have forty-six minutes left for today's exercise period."

Deciding that he could take in more sights another day; Loki decided to warm up and do some sprint and distance jump drills until it was time for him to return to his cell. Of all the solitary exercises that the Sparring Instructors had assigned, those had always been his favorite. Or rather they had been when he was out on the dirt sparring field. At first he thought he was just out of practice, but after a few more slips he decided that it was the polished floors and his lack of adequate footwear. His soft leather slipper fit too loosely and his socks gave no traction on the highly polished floor. Barefoot worked at first, but after he completed several laps and was starting to sweat even his feet started slipping out from under him.

By the time the Watcher told him to return to his cell he had narrowly avoided several bad slips and was pretty disgusted. So it was with poor grace that he snatched up his slippers and socks and returned to the cell, throwing himself on the bed. He had been hoping to tire himself out a bit, but he had been too worried about injuring himself to get any kind of a work out. While Loki could still do his strength exercises, they wouldn't help his speed or stamina, something he would definitely need if he ever wanted to escape.

Loki didn't throw his slippers across the room in disgust like he wanted to. Instead with more control that he would have ever thought to use for such a simple task, he rolled over and placed his slippers and socks neatly underneath his bed. He then sat quietly at the desk with a book that had been delivered with this morning's breakfast, The Beginners Guide to Electronic Circuits and Circuit Design. Loki had found it very helpful when he had been reading it earlier in the day, and had been pretty excited to receive it. But now if he stared at certain pages for long periods of time, it could be that he was carefully studying the illustrations and charts. He wasn't, but nobody else needed to know that.

OoooO

"Mister Odinson, if you would place your bare feet flat on the projection where indicated and hold still a moment I would appreciate it."

Loki looked up from his book, it was dark outside, so he must have been sitting there for a couple of hours. Sighing, he looked over and saw that the Watcher had activated a training screen, which was somehow projected onto the floor a few feet from his desk.

It took a bit of shuffling, and leaning back at just the right moment, but eventually both bare feet were positioned as requested. While he of course couldn't be sure why he was being requested to do this, he did suspect it was necessary to get foot wear suited the floor surface of his exercise area. A bar of light passed several times over his feet before the Watcher Jarvis indicated that he could move. He definitely could have asked, but he decided to wait, sure that he would find out eventually.

As soon as the screen disappeared from the floor, the glass walls frosted over, indicating that something was occurring outside of his cell that he wasn't allowed to see. He was putting his socks back on when the inner door opened allowing him access to the delivery cart. A most welcome occurrence, since he was in an almost constant state of hunger. But his dinner tray contained only the usual modest amount of food, not nearly enough to satisfy his appetite. His strength may have been reduced to that of a mortal, but his body was still of a normal Æsir configuration and he needed much more than the amount of food than his jailors apparently felt was necessary.

Still, he was grateful for it. While not nearly enough, it would keep him alive and reduce his hunger pains somewhat. And they were still giving him those extra drinks in the morning. While the Ginger Ale was just sugar, the Gatorade Performance drink, which came in such very odd colors, had enough calories to dull his hunger for a short while. So he tended to save the drinks for when his hunger pains got really bad. Of course now that he was no longer throwing up what meals he did receive, several times a week that helped too.

With barely a conscious thought he silenced the whining voice in the back of his mind told him he could just ask for more food. If Stark thought he was going to beg for anything he was sorely mistaken. He was doubtless going to be imprisoned here a long time so he needed to pace himself. Loki knew he had nothing but information to bargain with, which Stark was very interested in, so he wasn't going use his one tradable commodity on something like a frivolous request for a few extra bites of food.

A small smile tugged at the corners of Loki's mouth that had nothing to do with the food on his tray or even the books he picked up from the cart's lower shelf.

Besides, Loki was almost certain that all he really had to do to get larger portions was to wait. Eventually the tall woman named Potts would visit him and then his diet would be amended without him having to trade information for it. And if Stark got in trouble because his prisoner still was losing weight, well that was just a happy bonus wasn't it?

OoooO

The lights in Loki's cell never went out, but since he had protested the waste of money, the lights on the rest of the floor were kept off unless needed. A welcome bonus of this practice was that it helped his sense of time, since even when the walls were frosted, he could tell whether or not they were backlit with natural daylight.

But night or day his cell was always lit and he could never escape the scrutiny of the Watcher named Jarvis. No matter the time, no matter how softly he called, or even if he only gestured, Jarvis responded. Jarvis saw everything no matter how small and Jarvis was always watching. Anything that Jarvis saw or heard so could Stark. Unless Loki hid under his blanket like a mewling child, any noise of dismay, any slump in his posture, any tensing of his muscles, any expression that flitted across his face was theirs to see as they desired. Nothing except his thoughts were private. Nothing. And his thoughts were only private so long as he could discipline his body not to react to them.

That Loki could do, not react. Norns knew he had centuries of practice in keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself. No matter how happy, terrified, vengeful or remorseful he felt Loki could hide it. Mastering every movement, mastering every word, mastering the very gleam in his eye. Even more he could project an entirely different emotion from the one he was feeling, complete and perfect so that no one except his mother had ever known. After all, such duplicity was a necessary skill for a second prince, a future Chief Advisor, at least one for one who was also a Seiðr wielding male who was constantly commanded to know his place.

But he'd never had to mask like that, day after day, season after season. There was a price to pay for such mastery over every physical aspect of his exterior appearance and it was extracted in full every day. Sadly, the price was particularly painful when Loki's thoughts were so directly opposed to what he was projecting physically.

However no matter what price he was willing to pay, nobody had such mastery while they slept, in slumber the truth came out no matter how controlled he could be while awake. Oh, in the past it had been possible. Glamours could hide full blown nightmares while he slept, but Loki could no longer cast glamours, though he dearly wished he could.

OoooO

When Loki was a youngling he had imagined that Nightmares were large black war horses with smoldering red coals for eyes, flame licking sparks dancing across their dull coats and steel shod hooves that dripped fire like the something fresh pulled from a dwarven forge. Terrifying, because they were drawn from his own reality.

After all, war horses in general and his father's in particular were terrifying just to look at. Djöfullinn was an enormous coal black, viciously-tempered animal even from afar. He was much, much worse however when as a child, Loki tried to sneak into Djöfullinn stall to ride him on a dare. That had certainly not gone well; he and several of the stable hands who came to his rescue had been injured. Varying degrees of retribution had rained down on his head from several quarters, the stable master, Eir's head healer, Mother, with the worst of course being from Father.

And of course Djöfullinn never forgot it, something that Sif had found hysterically funny. The stallion's screaming challenges and attempts to kick down his stall whenever Loki was around, made later forays to the stables for legitimate reasons extremely nerve-racking. Loki had always thought privately that beside Sleipnir himself, the one other good thing that had come from that whole horrific experience with the wall was that Djöfullinn had been sent to stay at a remote stud farm once Sleipnir was fully grown.

But if Djöfullinn no longer represented his nightmares, that certainly didn't mean they no longer occurred. Frequently in fact might even be a bit of an understatement; while he had not known at first, now he was almost certain that the cause of most of them was that something had happened with his family.

Sometimes Loki woke himself up from the nightmares, sweating, breathless and occasionally bloody. More often Jarvis woke him up and twice it had been Stark. On one memorable occasion when apparently even Stark had not been able to bring him out of it; Banner had been sitting with him in the morning, having apparently drugged him into unconsciousness and bandaged the injuries he had gotten from flailing around during his distress.

"Of course I don't understand, but you should. Honestly Loki, I think it would help if you just talked it out. A lot of times discussing your nightmares and getting them out in the open takes away the emotional charge." Banner said, pausing to wipe his glasses off before replacing them and giving Loki a searching look.

Like Loki was foolish enough to give mortals in general and his jailors in particular any insight into what made him afraid.

"You may be right Doctor Banner," he said sincerely, surprising the good doctor. "Let's discuss why I am here on Midgard, that seems to be at the root of many of them. I think getting that out in the open would me help a lot." Smiling tiredly, he cocked an eye brow at Banner, "Let's discuss that shall we?"

"You know it would, but I can't. We've explained this to you before," Banner said earnestly despite the eye roll he was getting from Loki.

And that had been the end of another fruitless attempt to gather more information.

Banner had been upset when Loki wouldn't give him even a general idea of what was triggering the dreams. After badgering him for a few days without success, Banner had sent Loki a study paper about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that detailed coping skills to direct traumatic dreams so they would not be as severe. This was actually very thoughtful of the good doctor and might even have been helpful if Loki could have figured out why the perfectly innocuous things he was dreaming about were triggering such violent responses. He of course didn't tell Banner this; Loki merely said he couldn't remember anything about his dreams that should have caused a nightmare.

Two months later Banner came down to talk to Loki after Jarvis had informed him of a particularly bad night. Apparently as instructed by the doctor, Jarvis had orders to question Loki when he woke him up. Before Loki was even awake enough to remember that a conversation had taken place, Jarvis would ask him about his dream. Banner brought several sheets of paper detailing the dates and subjects of his dreams, and while he had no intention of discussing anything so private with his enemy, even after so many months, Loki no less than Doctor Banner was at a loss to understand why they were occurring.

Sometimes he didn't remember the dream enough to tell Jarvis anything. But even when he did, very few of the topics listed were anything that should have triggered a nightmare. Oh there were a few things from his youth, tricks that went bad, dwarfs, Svaðilfari and the builder, and a couple bad battles from when he was older. But for the most part when Jarvis woke him, he had been dreaming about perfectly normal day to day activities.

Loki had dreamt of sparring with Thor and his friends, monitoring meetings with the council, taking messages to Heimdall from his father, reading history books about the nine realms in the library and attending feasts with his family in Asgard. Mostly simple everyday activities, certainly nothing to trigger the heart stopping terrors that made him scream until his throat was raw. With those few exceptions from his youth, there was no real reason Loki or Banner could see why the events in those dreams should be causing him such distress. But since they did, that must mean that the real reason was missing.

So… Without knowing why, Loki was in prison with the approval of his family. On another realm, that Thor had visited in recent times. It was farfetched, but just barely possible that Loki could have somehow been tainted by association with people plotting against the throne. However there was no way that Thor could have known anyone in Midgard without Loki knowing about it. By Yggdrasill, Thor had not willingly gone on a quest without him in over five hundred years. And even if this had been one of the few times that Loki had managed to avoid accompanying him, there was no way in Niffleheim that Loki could have escaped hearing about the adventure in detail several times… At the very least. This lack, more than anything else told him that some of his memories had been removed.

And that is what truly frightened Loki. Only the most dangerous of state prisoners were subjected to memory erasure. What had he done or learned that was so dangerous that his very thoughts had been stripped from his mind for the good of Asgard?

OoooO

"Sir?"

"Yeah Jarvis?" Tony answered.

"Sir, you did ask me to keep you informed about your guest. I'm afraid he had another bad nightmare."

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes -** Well heck. This chapter is kinda a character setter, our last one thank gods. The next chapter when things start to move, or go wrong, or bad... Okay, we are just going to have to stick with bad.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **May thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	13. Chapter 13 - Know thy Enemy

**Chapter Summary**: This is why Tony has robots instead of have pets or houseplants. Pepper is not amused.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 13 – Know thy Enemy**

"Sir?" Jarvis called, muting the music in his lab.

"Yeah Jarvis?" Tony answered absently examining the specs for a ceramic engine block being used by the Mazda MZR inline 4. Not that Tony would be caught dead driving an econo-box Mazda, but the engine spec were pretty interesting and that sparked all kinds of fun ideas.

"Sir, you did ask me to keep you informed about your guest. I'm afraid he had another bad nightmare. I was able to get him to wake up and calm down, but it did take several minutes."

Tony leaned back in his chair, reaching up to rub his right temple. "What about Jarvis?" he asked tiredly.

"A family evening playing Skáktafl with his father sir."

Tony sighed. "Was he able to go back to sleep?"

"No sir, he's reading," replied the AI

_Playing Viking chess with daddy dear huh?_

"Crap, there is just nothing to work with there Jarvis," Tony said tossing his tablet on the table and rubbing his tired eyes.

"No sir. It would seem his sub-conscious knows he should be afraid about something involving the people he is dreaming about, just not what."

"I understand Jarv, but there's nothing I can do about that, even if I wanted to, I can't per the contract. And besides, it's not like the god of assholes doesn't deserve them."

Because frankly Tony thought a few nightmares a week and those near constant panic attacks were a pretty small price to pay for what Loki had rained down on New York. While it wasn't snake venom and being tied to a rock, Tony will take what he can get as revenge against the murdering bastard who threw him through a window. But Bruce and Pepper don't really think that way. So when the panic attacks along with the other physical ailments they were causing the god, came to their attention, Tony was forced to agree that the deity needed some relief from them.

And honestly, after a few months of having Jarvis report almost daily on the severity of the panic attacks, Tony had been feeling like a total shit for allowing them to continue anyhow. And truthfully he was starting to feel the same way about the nightmares. He knows what it feels like to not be able to sleep.

"You know Jarv, I've tried to tell him a few things just to see if it would calm his shit down, but I just can't. You know why."

"Perhaps I could sir?"

The question just hangs there; Tony can't even make himself give Jarvis the okay. Fucking Asgardian contracts and their magic geas!

But there is one thing he can do. Bruce had repeatedly pointed out to all of them that he is not that kind of doctor; But Brucie has studied enough medicine and psychology over the years that he's become a pretty good general physician with a lot of knowledge in other areas. So he is the go-to guy when a member of the Avengers needed help with something they don't want to go a SHIELD supplied physician with. Or for times like now, when Tony has a 'guest' that he isn't wild about taking to a regular doctor.

_Fuck, this is so not worth it._

"Jarvis, please send a message to Bruce and ask him about switching Merlin's PTSD med to that Prazosin he was talking about and seeing if it won't help the nightmares too. I honestly can't think of anything else left for us to try."

OoooO

There were books stacked high up one of the walls of Loki's cell. Mostly the books were works of science, some pertained to government, law or psychology with just a few being works of popular fiction that Loki deemed worthy of a possible revisit. They reflected a massive data dump of the types of knowledge that Midgard had to offer, or at least as much of it as was available in Stark Tower. And he had a stack of notebooks, divided by subject and filled with questions he had not yet answered and his thoughts and ideas on the ones that he had.

A few of Loki's note books just listed the books he had read and returned to the meal trolley over the last year, along with a summary of their contents, in case he might need to request them again. All his notes were written in Æsir runes rather the Midgardian English that he now read fluently. All the notebooks except for one. That very special one was written in a nearly dead language know only to the most serious of Seiðr scholars. That notebook held Loki's thoughts and questions about why he might possibly be imprisoned on Midgard.

Racking his brain for a reason why he might be here, Loki had initially thought that Odin might have discovered some of his more recent personal activities. However, as unreasonable as Odin might be about what was and wasn't the proper behavior of a prince, Loki couldn't convince himself that he would have jailed his own son for something that wasn't even a crime. No. Rather Odin would have once again sent him on some onerous, soul sucking, tedious, yet hazardous and ultimately embarrassing duty for the rather nebulous good of Asgard.

_After all,_ he thought savagely_, father did so like to get added value from his punishments._

Odin was indeed… creative about his punishments. But even so… Loki must have done something or he wouldn't have been put in prison. It must have been truly heinous or his own Mother wouldn't have agreed to be part of his incarceration. But the one thing he couldn't figure out was why his memories had been altered. It was hardly an Asgardian custom, almost unheard of in more modern times. After all he could hardly repent his crime if he couldn't remember it.

When he had first arrived, Loki spent the majority of his waking hours afraid, no he was worse than afraid, he was terrified. Fear in a hostile situation is natural, but it is usually the unknown which causes terror. He still didn't know anything, but the blend of drugs Banner had prescribed blanketed the terror to a certain extent. He smiled sourly; it was not unlike throwing a tarp over a Bilgesnipe. Perhaps you couldn't see the ravening monster waiting to disembowel you, but you knew it was still there, only a thin layer of material protecting you from its eventual attack.

A sharp thrill coursed through Loki, followed by a wave of harsh, gut-wrenching despair that lasted several minutes until he could get it under control. Loki snatched up his private note book flipped to the back few pages and added concealed monster to the list of thoughts that caused him unreasoning panic. Taking a page from the good doctor's book, in an effort to figure out why he was panicking he had started listing everything he was thinking about when he got these panic surges. The god had several pages of them listed and he was appalled that so many mundane activities or items had made it onto what was become a very long list.

OoooO

"Tony, what in the hell are you watching?" Pepper snapped.

_Fuck!_

"Oh, hey Pep," Tony said looking down at the boot thruster he was cleaning. What's up?"

Annoyed, she slapped down a folder beside him and gestured towards the screens open in front of him.

"Tony, what exactly is going on?" Pepper asked, waving an irritated hand towards one of the screens which was presently featuring their current 'guest' as Pepper insisted Tony refer to him as.

Of course, Tony thought, mentally rolling his eyes, but only mentally, because he knew from experience that Pepper was in the optimal position to backhand him. Why can't she be asking me about the other screens with engineering sketches and material specs? Nooooooo, she has to be referring to the screen that has a half-naked god of really lissome power moves, twisting, twirling and leaping his hot self all over the place.

Tony paused, his brows pinched in thought as he watched the god do several very low back and forth motions, before rolling forward into a one hand cartwheel twist thing that ended with his leg sweeping out in a one hundred and eighty degree arc.

_How in the hell does he do that stuff? _

Tony wished that he could see Loki and Natasha go at it hand to hand; now that would be something to see.

"Oh… Hey, looks like our guest is in the middle of his exercise period." Tony said, going for an absent mindedly interested kind of reply.

Although to be honest, he had given Jarvis a standing order to pop the god up on the screen when it was his exercise period, because Tony frankly couldn't really believe some of the moves the guy made. Tony had thought the static strength stuff was unreal, but this stuff was like fluid poetry. And since he had never ever even liked poetry, Tony was kind of amazed at how fascinating it was.

And besides he told himself virtuously, Pep had told him he had to check in on the bastard once a day anyhow, he might as well do it while he was going something more interesting that reading and writing notes in language that flat pissed Tony off because he couldn't decipher it no matter how many snap shots Jarvis snuck.

Although snuck was perhaps too harsh a word, after all Tony wasn't really spying on the deity, Tony had a duty to monitor everything the god did, to make sure that crazy brain wasn't hatching any new take over the world plans. He had specifically warned Jarvis to be on the lookout for any notes referencing lab mice. Which would he guessed be a lot fucking easier if either of them knew what the Asgardian rune for Pinky was. Maybe he could ask Thor next time he came for a visit?

"Tony!"

"What?!"

The sound of a tapping foot echoed through his work shop.

"Hey, Pep. You're the one who told me to check on him every day to make sure he was okay. And heck, Jarvis already ordered him sneakers suited for that floor surface when we noticed he was slipping and having problems. What else do you want me to do?"

Pepper glared at him. "Really Tony? You noticed that?"

Tony nodded, a bit wide eyed.

"You?" she persisted as Tony considered but then rejected looking offended, deciding that sticking to _earnestly trying_ was safer.

Pepper tapped her foot again and just looked at the screen for a moment, "Jarvis freeze the feed will you? Okay… back it up to where he came out of that backward roll thing and stood up… There. Tighten the focus Jarvis... Stop."

Okay.

Tony examined the screen closely. Hot sweaty guy in a thin t-tank wearing lycra exercise shorts, a pair of grey crew socks and his second pair of Rebok Cross Fit z-tech sneakers, which Jarvis swore were the best shoes for the exercises Loki was doing and the floor surface he was dealing with. Okay, so Jarvis is who decided the circus god needed the trainers, researched and then ordered them. But hey, he built Jarvis, so he should get some credit right?

"What?" Tony asked a bit warily. Outside of legs that went on forever because he was such a tall bastard, Tony couldn't see anything out of place. "The sneakers are new, we replaced the worn pair a few weeks ago, didn't we Jarvis?" he said, defensive in the face of Pepper's increasing disapproval.

"Jarvis, is Loki sick and throwing up again without you alerting me?" she asked.

"No, Ms. Potts, he has only had two episodes in the last six months. Both of which I told you about."

"Is he refusing to eat?" she said in a dangerously low voice that had Tony edging away from her.

"Not at all, he eats everything he is given, even the garnishes," the AI said, causing the shoe to drop for Tony.

_Even the garnishes? Ah fuck._

"Pep, I didn't know, I didn't realize." Tony apologized, sliding around his work table so it was between them.

"Jesus Tony!" Pepper yelled, "You check in on him every day, your supposedly see him personally once a week, yes?"

Tony nodded his assent anxiously.

"So how the hell did you not notice that he's isn't gaining back any weight? The guy is practically naked and you didn't notice how thin he still is?"

_Oh-kay then. I am totally screwed on this one. Time to see what a good defense will do for me._

"Well Pep, unlike you I really don't pay attention to the bodies of guys…" his voice trailed off as the sparks of anger from Pepper's blue eyes practically ignited his shirt.

"Oh no. You are not even going there with this one," she spat at him. "You forget I know exactly what you've dragged home over the years."

She angrily jabbed an index finger at the screen before leveling it at him.

"This is why you have dead house plants and robots instead of pets," She hissed slamming her hand down on the folder she had tossed on the work bench earlier.

"Anthony Edward Stark, I would very much not like to see you kill someone through neglect, especially if it would most likely sign your own death warrant at the same time."

Oh.

_Oh. _

Pepper is almost the only one who worries about him like that, and he would be lying if it didn't make him feel a bit…

"Besides, it would be incredibly bad for our stock price."

_Bitch. _

"Oh low blow Pep." Tony groused making a face at her while schlepping over to get coffee, and put more distance between the two of them, just in case. Pepper had been known to start throwing things when she was really pissed. And sadly, mechanical labs have lots of wrenches and other easily grabbed and fairly solid throw-able objects just lying around everywhere. Equally sadly, Pepper had a really strong arm and pretty decent accuracy.

"Well it would Tony, plus I have to spend the rest of my days mourning you. Or at least twelve percent of them."

_Ouch again. Is she ever going to let that go?_

"You're a bitch, you know that right?"

"Yes, Tony I am. But you love me anyhow."

_Well there was that of course,_ he thought. Looking over at Pepper, he saw that she seemed more pensive than pissed right now; perhaps this would be the right time to offer up another apology and see if this one took.

"I'm sorry Pepper, it just he's so unlike Thor, it just never occurred to me that he might have the same appetite."

"Although…" Tony frowned a bit, pensively rubbing the side of his goatee with his knuckles. "Jarvis, did he _ever _say anything about still being hungry?"

"Of course not sir or I would have immediately brought it to your attention." Jarvis' reply was slightly defensive.

"I wonder why not?" he muttered glaring up at the screen where the god was just finishing up a series of high forward flips to a hand stand and then some sort of controlled fall backwards to another one of his leg sweeping spin moves. He and Pepper both watched for a few minutes.

"Tony, what exactly is it he's doing?" Just as he opened his mouth Pepper continued, "Besides exercising, that I get."

"Mister Odinson says it is called Battle Dance, a display dance done by youths and shield maidens during festivals," Jarvis informed them.

"Seriously Jarvis?" Tony laughed putting down his coffee.

"This is the Asgardian version of maypole dancing?" Tony was flabbergasted at the idea of the Scourge of New York prancing around in his tower doing a kid's festival dance.

"Yes sir. Apparently it is one of the few active exercises available to him that he feels he can do without equipment."

"Hey, I offered to get him some, he didn't want to spend the money, so don't look at me like that." Tony said quickly warding off more glares from Pepper.

"Actually sir, on Asgard it might be considered a festival dance, but it does not compare to Earth's Maypole dancing, rather it is more like Capoeira Martial Dance, which was a covert form of martial art training for Brazilian slaves."

Tony exchanged an incredulous look with Pepper.

Okay, it's a martial art form that just looks like a hot guy who is new age dancing up a storm. That was, Tony thought, more like something the god of sneaky would do, snickering to himself the whole while as we all laughed at him for prancing around doing a kid's dance. Not knowing he was getting in shape to kick our butts from here to Asgard.

_Oh yeah, that was totally Loki._

"Of course it is Jarv, because no place that raised Point Break and Rock of Ages would have normal kid's dances."

"I don't care, back to the main point Tony." Pepper walked around the bench following him as he tried to ease away.

"Tony I want him at dinner every Friday night," she told him poking his shoulder with a long manicured fingernail to emphasize her point. "I want to personally check on his condition at least once a week, since I apparently can't trust you to do that."

"Ow. Pep, watch the claws. Anyhow, hello secure floor. What are we doing picnic lunches down here on Friday nights?"

"No of course not, upstairs in the penthouse. As for security, you're a genius, you figure it out."

"But Pep, I don't even always make it up for dinner. You know that," Tony whined, trying his best to look artfully pitiful.

"Yes Tony I do," she said trapping him against the work bench and leaning over him. "But if you don't make it, I will be alone eating with Loki, world invader. Is that going to sit right with you?"

"Look," he said slightly panicked at her crowding him. Not that he doesn't like to be close to Pepper, he does, just not when she is wearing her no-nonsense suit with a no-nonsense expression. "Look, just let me think about it, I can't guarantee this week."

"Fine Tony, next week without fail or we will be having more than dinner come Friday," she said, backing up a bit before turning and striding towards the door.

She tossed Tony a look over her shoulder as she walked toward the elevator. "Oh and Tony?" She raised that finger and pointed toward the work bench. "I want them read, annotated and signed by the time I get back up here this evening. Do you understand?"

As soon as Pepper had swept out the door, Tony bowed his head, tapping it gently on the surface of the workbench. Because as much as he wanted to slam the last fifteen minutes out of his brain he owes it to the world not to risk damaging it.

"Jarvis, can we just talk about how embarrassing that just was?"

"Which part sir? You're being scolded for not realizing that your guest was not receiving enough nourishment. Or the fact that Ms. Potts caught you watching him exercise?"

Tony looked up with a grimace, "The second thanks... Well both actually... Crap, Jarv, make sure he has enough food to leave a bit uneaten in the future will you? And as for the other…."

"You want me to blank out the screen in anyone comes in during an exercise period, sir?"

"Yeah," Tony said nodding his head, "that's exactly what I want you to do buddy. Thanks."

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes -** I do love me some Pepper.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	14. Chapter 14 - Rub a Dub Dub

**Chapter Summary**: Business is booming, just not for Tony.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

It is soooooo hard to snip and tighten when you are doing chapters on the fly. How you other writers do it I have no clue. But I am in awe of your talents!

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 14 – Rub a Dub-Dub**

"Good afternoon sir. The temperature today is expected to be in the mid-sixties with scattered cloudiness. Mister Odinson has no concerns that have not been relayed previously. Ms. Potts will be back from Germany Friday, she says in early enough to make dinner this time without fail. And the time is one thirty-six in the afternoon."

Tony yawned and stretched. It was a toe curling, finger extending, back arching, full body stretch. Tossing aside the black on black stylized floral patterned comforter, he sat on the side of the bed a moment before heading to the little genius' room, pausing on his way at the large dresser just outside the door to grab a much worn Green Day Dookie t-shirt from the top middle drawer and a pair of heavy jersey knit pants from the drawer below. Blearily glad he had taken a shower before he went to bed Tony did his business, brushed his teeth and dressed slowly, smoothing his t-shirt over his stomach with a few absent minded stokes.

Tony's eyes were sleep crusted and scratchy as grabbed a wet wash cloth and rubbed his face, preparing to greet his day. He wondered what fresh long distance hell Pepper had planned for him this morning. Oh all right, this afternoon, since morning was long gone already.

"Hey Jarvis," Tony said, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the sun coming in the windows. Running a hand through his messy bed head hair he headed towards the bathroom.

"Anything scheduled today?" Tony asked as he stretched and ambled out of the bathroom.

"Of course sir, you almost always have something scheduled," an amused Jarvis told him. "You very often ignore the items on your schedule or arbitrarily clear your schedule, but you almost always have something you should be doing before the day is out."

Which was not something Tony could argue with, even if he wanted to, which he didn't. He was not very good at keeping track of stuff that was not design related. Oh he could if it was something that interested him, like perhaps foiling some stupid take-over by his Board of Directors or something fun that would piss Fury off if he got involved with it… but run of the mill everyday details? Too boring to keep track of, let Pepper handle it.

"So, anything important today? Besides whatever Pepper has for me?"

"Yes sir, you have to send the Quarterly report to Queen Frigga today," Jarvis told him in his normally calm soothing voice, "and you did ask me to remind you to do an actual face to face check before you signed off and sent it."

"Fine Jarvis, send it to my tablet, I'll look at it in a minute."

Humpf. Except for the daily check via Jarvis' surveillance cameras, Tony hadn't thought about the imprisoned god in the month or so. Well except for the occasional look when Jarvis starts streaming surveillance video during exercise time.

Okay, okay.

Who cares if he has Jarvis order him in some dinner and takes a break to watch? Hey, Pepper, Bruce and Jarvis are always bugging him to eat more regularly. So he has a favorite show he likes to watch during dinner, at least he is taking a break and eating. That's what's important right?

Tony had never really gotten that whole reality show thing, but he thinks maybe now he does. It's like an entertaining train wreck, you know it's going to end in disaster but you just can't help watching. Tony can't decide if his show should be called _Keeping up with the Odinson_ or maybe _The Loki Show. _And he isn't sure if the train wreck is Loki or him watching Loki, but what he is sure of, is that Loki is much more picturesque than either Jim Carey or Khloé. Which might be part of the problem or attraction or whatever. Hell who knows?

But he does know that just the exercise periods alone would go viral in a heartbeat if he ever stuck any of them up on You Tube. And that is even with no one knowing that the star of them is the former Scourge of New York. And if it entertains the hell out of Tony to imagine what kind of a sales pitch the Loki Show would need if it was shopped around to the networks… Well honestly it is pretty damn funny. Everyone knows his mind goes to some strange places when he is working, so nothing new there. Although it does get him in trouble every now and then, like when he is in the middle of a boring meeting with Fury and the Avengers and it suddenly occurs to him what kind of product placement and sponsorship deals the Loki Show could go after. Hey if Fury can't take him snickering under his breath he shouldn't make him come to the damn meetings in the first place.

But since he is pretty sure that he is the only one that would be amused, everything pertaining to his _guest_ is stored in separate secure servers, just in case SHIELD ever hacks past Jarvis. And per Pepper insistence, Loki's name doesn't appear anywhere, not on file names, not in the files, not on the medical records Bruce has stored, nowhere. Anywhere the name Loki, Frigga or Asgard might have gone, Guest and something else bland is substituted.

Tony grabbed the cup of his favorite life sustaining caffeinated beverage and headed into the living room. While he may like to _watch_ said god of mischief doing shit that shouldn't be physically possible, Tony can't actually stand being in his non-question answering presence. Therefore Pepper being out of town for the last several Fridays has been a bit of a relief for him.

After all if he was going to see the bastard during the forced meal thingy with Pepper, he didn't need to schedule any other face time for the in person checks she demanded. It's not his fault that Pepper has had to cancel the last few times, after all he was ready, so his missing those checks are really Pepper's fault not his.

Because he was ready, hell he had already modified a shock collar for the god to use when off of his floor, well proximity triggered taser ankle bracelet is what he ended up with. He did start with a collar, but it ended up looking too bondage kink chic. Not that it wouldn't be a good look for the god, but still not anywhere Tony wants to go. But be that as it may, Tony has got his shit together and is ready for the Psycho Killer Dinner Nights when ever Pepper's schedule allows her to show up. He'll do his face time then thank you very much.

"You know Jarvis, it's hard to believe the annoying one has been here for a year."

"Indeed sir." Jarvis replied, "You did sleep rather late sir, you may want to review the account now. It does have to be ready this afternoon."

_Yeah, yeah whatever,_ Tony thought dismissively, but he did grab one of his tablets from the bar. _Right. Back to business, Tony Stark's Maximum Security Insane God Prison business at any rate._

Tony set his coffee on the side table and flopped down on the couch. Since the broken god had been unconscious for the entire first quarter that had been an easy report to send. The second quarter Loki had been too freaked, sick or pissed to do much of anything. Once Tony had finally got him calmed down enough that the godling wasn't screaming until he was too hoarse to talk, Tony had actually thought it would go easier. Wrong. Not that Gandalf had been a ton of trouble or anything, hell, give him a book and cookie and the guy was quiet for hours.

_Well, maybe it should have been a whole box of cookies_, Tony thought guiltily.

Yeah, the guy was keeping quiet not that Tony was exactly happy about that either. He'd been at the tower for a year now and he wasn't cooperating at all and it was making Tony crazy. He knew it was stupid to have hoped that Loki would just 'get over it', hell if it had been him, he certainly wouldn't have. And so yeah the guy was an immortal god, maybe not a god now, but from what his mom said, still immortal, and gods could hold a grudge for centuries couldn't they? So smart as he was, what made Tony be so stupid as to think the guy would just get over it in a few months?

Oh, Tony had got him to talk for a few minutes. But then he had started asking Tony some very pointed questions about what events led to him being on Midgard and when Tony couldn't tell him, he'd icily refused to answer any of Tony's questions, not even about metallurgy. Which totally bummed Tony out, because really, who didn't want to talk about metallurgy?

Stubborn bastard.

OoooO

A short while later Tony was sitting on the couch sipping his first coffee of the day and looking over his 'Guest' account so he could sign the damn thing.

_What the_…

"Hey Jarvis? Why is the Guest account showing credits applied for this month? Didn't we already make those last quarter?"

"Of course sir, the over charges have already been applied." Jarvis said reassuringly.

Tony closed his eyes a moment, gathering his patience. "So the credits for this month are for? What? Work with me on this one Jarvis."

"Mister Odinson has requested that his wages be applied to his mother's account, augmenting whatever money is left from the original deposit."

"Wages?"

"Yes sir."

Tony set his coffee down, closed his eyes and rubbed soothing little circles on his temples. "Could you explain to me how it is that a sequestered prisoner has wages?" he asked in a carefully controlled voice. "And while you are at it, could you explain how this occurred without me knowing about it?"

"Actually sir, it was his idea."

"Jarvis, why doesn't that surprise me?"

"I couldn't say for sure sir."

Tony sat hunched over, hanging his head; his hand had shifted from his temples to the back of his neck as he kneaded the knot that had started tightening there.

"When does he even work? He can't leave his floor."

A charge through Tony's spine right up to the knot at the base of his skull, causing him to sit bolt upright and wide eyed.

"Jarvis," he croaked, the heavy weight of dread sitting on his chest not allowing anything more, "please tell me he hasn't left his floor?"

"Of course not sir." Jarvis soothed, "He has already reduced the maintenance costs for his floor by taking over the general janitorial duties, but he asked me if there might be some other tasks he could perform within the confines of his floor that would contribute to his balance rather than just reduce the charges made against it. Apparently a few of the books he read made mention of prisoners working for wages. Since we were already researching if any savings could be achieved by him doing his own laundry vs. the cost of buying the laundry machines this was a natural progression."

Tony groaned. Not only was he running a prison for wayward space Vikings, but apparently he now had an illegal sweat shop going. Worse, his own AI was helping. Not that he objected to people working mind you… but, but… he wasn't going to be able to bribe the bastard with anything if he could buy it himself.

_Well except maybe for hookers or something._ Although Tony wasn't quite sure if he was ready to turn pimp just to get info on alien tech. Well at least he hoped he wasn't.

_Ah, who the hell am I trying to kid here_.

Knowing that if the god would just co-operate Tony would have someone at the tower from an escort service every Friday as Loki's dinner date. No matter what Pepper had to say about it.

Fine, okay. Yes! The engineer in him was not too proud to pimp for science.

_I hope you're happy now,_ he told his subconscious, _I am officially scum_.

Heedless of the distracting thoughts his words were causing, Jarvis continued, "I had already decided that the cost of moving one of the sets of the machines from the entertainment floor down to his could be paid for by him taking care of your day to day laundry for the next several months. But per your instruction to accommodate all reasonable requests he made in regards to the charges being set against Queen Frigga, I also mentioned his wishes to work for wages to Ms. Potts. Along with the information that the vendor with the lab coat laundry contract was still in default of his delivery times."

"Really Jarv? You bothered Pepper over a laundry contract?" Tony's face screwed up in pain. Seriously the god was way more trouble than he was worth.

"Yes sir, really. Ms. Potts agreed with me that giving Mister Odinson a daily task to distract him, would augment the effectiveness of the medicine Doctor Banner prescribed for his panic attacks."

"Oh she did, did she?" Tony asked peevishly.

Not that Tony really cared what the god did all damn day. If the rat bastard wouldn't talk science to him, who the hell cared if he was kept busy or entertained.

Except of course for Pepper and Bruce apparently.

And to be truthful, he maybe did care a little bit since it would delay the account getting drawn down enough for Tony to request more material.

_Oh, okay, _he was pissed about it. Tony had his heart set on getting some of the metals in their raw form and this would delay when he could ask for them. Worst, he couldn't say anything to Pepper or Jarvis unless he wanted to admit he was officially scum.

_Face it,_ _the guy has a gift for getting on my last nerve._

"Yes sir, she felt that the cost of adding additional walls, industrial machines and a negative pressure vent so he can also do coats for the clean lab were well worth the startup costs and should be recouped within six months just on the savings from the reduction of coats needed, eliminating transit loss, delivery delays and reducing the amount of oversight from the payables and contract department.

"Which you pointed out to her correct?"

"Of course sir."

"Jarvis have we not talked about being _too_ helpful?"

So... Apparently Stark Towers now contained not only an alien prisoner but also a sweat shop laundry. Minion, a robot so named by Tony since every evil wanna be dictator should have a servant named Minion, picked up all the laundry and delivered it to the laundry room on the 'Guest' floor while the god was eating breakfast. Then later when everything was finished, the 'bot delivered it all back where it came from. The laundry never left the building, never stayed overnight on the restricted floor and was never lost or late.

So yeah, he could see how that was working for the lab, cafeteria and executive lunch room. And that of course meant that after a month long trial which went perfectly, Tony had zero chance of getting Pepper to go back the way it had been. Not that she really gave a rat's ass about Stark International laundry, but once a problem had been solved she liked it to stay solved.

_Joy. _

And maybe it wasn't a sweat shop since Jarvis, per Pepper instructions, had wrangled the necessary paper work to get the god a work visa and tax id number under a name that wouldn't light up every security sweep SHIELD had.

And maybe Tony had noticed that things had been a crisper and more neatly pressed the last few weeks and now he knew why. Instead of being popped in a truck, drove around town and then bundled into the building an up to this floor for delivery, now they were ironed and hung on a rolling rack, or folded and placed in a bin on the lower shelf of the rack so Minion could just roll them into Tony's private elevator and deliver them to his walk in closet.

He checked the figures again, actually kinda surprised. Who knew the employees at just this location were spending two thousand dollars a week in laundry fees for lab coats. Okay, so fifty percent of that was picked up by the company, but that that didn't even take into account the money the cafeteria and executive dining room was spending weekly on laundry or what Tony's own accounts were contributing for his laundry. Since the previous contracts were piece work, just with what Loki was doing now he would be able to contribute almost half what Frigga was charged a year.

Which meant it would easily be six months or so before Tony could request additional material, not that he knew exactly what he wanted to ask for. Which brought Tony right back to the source of his current irritation, the fact that the ass god of mischief wouldn't talk to him.

After signing everything and sealing it up the way he was supposed to, he delivered the envelope out to the BiFrost site. Walking back into the house he did have to smile a bit. Having his laundry done by a god was pretty damn funny. But funny or not, he was still going to have a chat with Pepper about delaying his next shipment of extraterrestrial metal.

"Jarvis, remind me to talk to Pepper about this next time she calls would you?"

Of course if he had known the shit that was headed his way that evening he would have just ignored the rest of the day, grabbed a bottle of something good and gone back to bed.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes -** Okay... There are several house keeping chapters to get us finally out from under the middle of this damn fic. Lord knows I will never post anything again until it is completely finished. But that is water under the BiFrost now, so we are just going to have to wade thru this mess. Therefore for my sanity and hopefully your reading pleasure I am going to post a chapter a day for he next week. That should get us out of the middle of this thing. Enjoy.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	15. Chapter 15 - Bad Idea

**Chapter Summary**: Loki ponders the meaning of his imprisonment... Stark ponders a label on a bottle.

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Second of seven Christmas Pressie Chapters. I hope you enjoy it.

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**Chapter 15 – Bad Idea **

Tony really shouldn't have been drinking this evening; finding out about being the not so proud owner of a prison laundry facility had not been amusing. Neither was the delay he was going to experience in getting the metals he wanted due to the money said laundry was generating for the care and feeding of his least favorite pain in the ass. But that had just been the start of what had turned out to be a totally craptastic day.

Not an hour after he dealt with the quarterly 'Guest' report , he received an unexpected blow as he was informed that the world was absolutely going to stop spinning if he didn't, go into the office and deal with paper work. Seriously, going to the office without even having Pepper to visit with? Hell it wasn't even fun when she was there, let alone when he had to deal which her third string office drone. So no fun. But less fun was when he did speak to her on the phone later that day, instead of being her usual chipper self, Pepper reminded him of things he would rather have forgotten. Like the death of Phil Coulson… Or Agent as Tony had always referred to him.

Tony hadn't even known that Agent and Pepper had dated. He was a fricking genius, how could he have been that clueless?

While they hadn't been dating when he died of course and Pepper had moved on after his death, she and Phil had apparently been friends for a good while. Pretty good friends actually and today her list of reminders had included one about her dead friend's birthday, hence her being in a down mood.

Sad for all concerned of course. But then that triggered an 'Iron Man had put you at risk' melt down. Which was really not something Tony wanted his fiancée obsessing over. Not that Tony wasn't put at risk often enough through experimentation accidents, which she also brought up.

_I just can't win today._

So Tony had spent his day dealing with one aggravation after another. He had dutifully signed the huge piles of papers Pepper's office had wanted taken care of, read the stuff Pepper had wanted reviewed and then spent two hours on the phone being a good fiancée as she sobbed over all the various stress triggers that cascaded one right after another. So he ended his day dealing with an emotional Pepper, who was upset by the death of Agent, which had been caused by the same person who had fucked up the beginning of his day… Loki.

Tony hated dealing with anything that wasn't a clear cut engineering problem. Eventually, escaping to his lab he took a whole bottle of Dalmore Cromartie with him. The billionaire felt mentally and emotionally exhausted, and he fully intended to crawl into the comfort of his bottle and not come out the rest of the night.

_After a day like today, I deserved some sort of a reward and you baby are it, _he told the very expensive bottle.

OoooO

Tony peered blearily at the bottle that was comforting him, well it had been a whole bottle, now it was more like a third, or possibly only a quarter. Crap, at this rate he was going to have to leave the lab and get another one. Which is not to say that he didn't have alcohol stashed in his lab… he most certainly did. But the stuff hid in the lab was just average everyday forgetfulness, not anything good like this deer head stuff. For that he would have to go upstairs to the bar in his apartment, or possibly even down to the entertainment floor and get into his secured liquor storage room. He wondered if he even had any more of the Dalmore. Idly his finger traced the whiskey's logo, was it a deer or a stag? Or hell, maybe even a reindeer, who the fuck knew?

Rudolf?

Yeah, like that was even possible, asking Rudolf if this, Tony stoked the logo again. Was this his namesake. Or maybe it was Dasher? Or Prancer? Tony snorted. Hell right now Loki might even be Dancer or Prancer. Dude did enough of it that was for sure.

_So I occasionally watch video of him when Jarvis allows him an exercise period. Big deal._

Okay, so maybe it was more often than once or twice, who cares. The point is most normal felons were content to do regular exercises, like pushups and crap like that. But oh no, Mister Twinkle Toes had to strip down to a pair of lycra shorts and a skin tight tank and freaking dance. Leaping and jumping and spinning insanely for a couple of hours until he was a sweaty breathless hot mortal mess. Sort of like Capoeira Martial Dance Jarvis said… Tony thought the only thing the god was missing was a stripper pole.

Well never mind that, Tony thought savagely wrenching his mind away from that particularly annoying path.

Of course it wasn't like the words normal or sane could even apply to the former godling, there were other terms that could apply, Tony thought darkly. Like him having to console Pepper while she cried over Phil's untimely demise at the god's hands. Or Pepper reminding him how it had proved her point about the risks that Iron Man faced when the god had choked and thrown him out a window to plunge ninety stories to what should have been his certain death. Or Pepper's initial upset over him even agreeing to house the psychotic murdering fucker in exchange for information that the bastard refused to give him. He hadn't even answering one damn question of substance no matter who asked him.

That was a something…

"Jarvis, what is our favorite Norse prisoner doing right now?" Tony asked, glaring at the logo on his whiskey bottle a moment before tipping it back and taking another good long pull.

"Loki has forty-seven more minutes left of his exercise period before he has to return to the containment area sir."

"Does he?" he purred, nice and low, "Jarvis, please get the Mark 15 ready to roll will you."

OoooO

As Loki flipped forwards, coming down in a deep crouch that seamlessly spun into a kick, he had an epiphany.

_Mortal bodies are crap._

Well perhaps it was not really an epiphany; after all it was not so much a sudden leap of understanding, but rather prevailing knowledge of how little he currently had to work with physically. But at least those strange low shoes that Jarvis found for him were helping to keep his feet from slipping and his mortal knees from hurting when he exercised now. Not that Loki had really wanted to spend the money for them. But Jarvis had insisted that they were specifically designed for the conditions that Loki was exercising under and would not authorize a less expensive type of shoe.

Stark's reaction to that particular skill had amused him, there was no way that anyone could grow up to be a second prince and not know how to balance a ledger book. If there was a way to make the numbers come out in his favor, Loki knew how to do it. After all it was many years ago when he suddenly stopped having lessons with Thor and Odin and started having them with the exchequer and the chancellor. Oh at first of course he was trained with their new clerks, but later he received his lessons directly from the men holding those positions. If there was a way to negotiate a savings that would benefit Asgard or the court, then Loki knew it.

And Loki was determined to use his skills to make his mother's payment last as far as possible, since he had no idea of how much trouble it would cause for her if she had to tap into funds other than those supplied by her bridal estates. Obviously there was unrest in the court if she was personally guaranteeing the cost of his incarceration, so he needed to make sure he didn't put such a charge on her finances that she would have to apply to Odin or the council for relief.

So Loki would do everything he could to reduce the drain on her purse, even if that means doing menial labor like cleaning or laundry. No matter how degrading he found it personally as a Prince of Asgard, until he was told by his mother that it wasn't necessary he would fight for every savings he could think of.

_It's not like I am the crown prince after all_, he thought sourly, having no illusions that second princes got stuck with more of the day to day drudgery.

Wrenching his thoughts away from his financial situation, mortal limitations and Thor, Loki settled into a mid-paced run, circling the floor as he tried to concentrate on the music that was playing. The nothingness of losing himself in the rhythm was much better than getting sucked down again in negative thoughts. Tonight's song was called 'Barracuda' and while the beat was not as strong as last night's song, 'Bring me to Life', at least it didn't have any uncomfortable lyrics. Not that Loki would ever mention that to Jarvis, he merely accepted his suggestions and he tried not to give any hints about his preferences or what he was thinking of if he could help it.

But uncomfortable lyrics or not, since Jarvis didn't charge him for music and was even helpful enough to suggest songs with suitable beats, Loki always listened to it when he exercised. Jarvis had suggested that the proper tempo in a song would help give the motivation that was missing when he had to exercise alone. He was right of course, but Loki would have accepted the suggestion even if it hadn't. For a long time he had been so starved any kind of ongoing audible stimuli that every time Jarvis' voice broke the silence it surprised him so badly he was hard pressed to cover up his response.

Pathetic, a Prince of Asgard becoming so upset he felt faint just from normal speech. In fact after the first few months of almost absolute silence and being sick almost every other day, he almost broke down in tears of gratitude when Jarvis offered him the music. He hadn't of course, but Loki was uncomfortably aware of how close he had been to losing control.

Other than when he had been learning to read, Jarvis seldom spoke to him unless it was to relay one of the increasingly scarce questions from Stark or negotiate one of the agreements Loki was trying to get approved.

Stupid mortal, if he wasn't going to answer Stark's questions in person, why he would think he would do it when Jarvis asked?

Doors opened and shut without comment, and unless Loki was sick or he was trying to wake him up from a nightmare Jarvis seldom spoke to Loki. Of course once or twice a month he spoke with Ms. Potts, Doctor Banner or Tony Stark, sometimes in person if his wretched body was sick, but more often through a speaker in the ceiling of his cell. He almost missed Thor's incessant babbling.

_Almost._

Ms. Potts, Midgardians seldom used the title of lady he had learned, had been kind during his illness. Stark…

Stark had been attentive enough… in a Thor kind of way.

Was Stark actually worried that Loki's mortal body was having so many problems? No of course not. Was he upset that Loki being stubborn was interfering with what he wanted from Loki? Yes, of course he was.

His behavior was extremely Thor'ish, with perhaps more than a touch of Sif's hateful bile when thwarted.

"Oh come on," Tony had whined like an over tired five year old. "I know you've read all the papers on the work being done on the Einstein-Rosen bridge that I sent down to you, Jarvis watched you. Hell you read them several times, just tell me what you think?"

"No, I can't discuss that," Tony huffed. "Look asshole, just once I'd like to get an answer out of you. Who knows, maybe if you answered a few of my questions, I'd be more inclined to answer yours."

"What the fuck?! Look I don't know how you do it in fairy-land, but here? People don't normally try to piss off their jailor. I have to provide you with medical care, but no one says it has to be effective care! Just answer the fucking questions or you can go back to spewing your guts every other day!" Tony bellowed, striking the glass wall with a fist and then kicking it a time or two for good measure.

Sometimes it only took a few minutes of Stark clutching at his already messy brown hair and cursing before he left. Other times Stark would stay on the other side of the glass for an hour or two insulting him, badgering him, alternately cajoling, threatening and whining at him. Asking Loki variations of the same questions trying to annoy Loki in the hopes that he would slip up and accidently answer.

That was not going to happen. His patience had been tried and tested by centuries of having to deal with Thor, Odin and Fandral. Which is not to say that Loki had not completely thrown caution to the winds and let situations escalate more than a time or two over his long life. He had of course, but the absolutely appalling consequences of him losing his temper, had long taught the futility of that form of stress release.

Of course he had been tempted many, many times. Twice Stark had Jarvis shut off all the lights so he couldn't read anymore and forced Loki to spend the night listening to some loud raucous excuse for music all night long. The only time he could have hidden in dark and not worried about maintaining his mask while he slept, he couldn't sleep for the headache inducing noise that continued until breakfast.

That come to think of it was also fairly Thor'ish behavior. If you were not doing what Thor wanted, he would find ways to annoy and harass hoping you would give into his plans. Loki's only luck there was that Thor had the attention span of an ill-trained puppy. Stark while giving the appearance of flightiness was fairly tenacious for a mortal.

Loki decided to vary his run with some forward rolls and kicks. While he hated it, he had to admit that his mortal body was responding much better than it had even a few months ago. He waited until the music came back to the beginning of the song and then launched into a fairly ambitious routine of jumps, lunges, flips and kicks while still maintaining forward progression. All he needed were garments in his house colors and a set of ankle chimes and he would be as ready for a festival performance as any mortal could be.

After a few reverse vaults as a finale he twirled and took a few sweeping bows to his non-existent audience, making sure to keep them outrageously, theatrically over the top in the best of festival tradition.

Shaking his arms and legs loose, he once again began to lope around the exercise area, this time going in the opposite direction, letting his body do the work while his mind wandered.

At one point, early on, Loki had wondered if the absolute lack of outside noise was a conditioning attempt of some sort that Stark was inflicting on him to make him desperate to talk to him. But Jarvis had recently let it slip that he could ask for his nightly song at any volume he wanted since the entire building was 'sound proofed' to prevent noise from annoying people in other parts of the building.

Of course since he had started getting an exercise time Jarvis had been speaking to him more often, but mostly in the nature of command or warnings. Small things like 'Mister Odinson, you have twenty minutes left until your exercise period is over' or 'please return to your room and put your cuff on' with the occasional 'that load is ready for the dryer' if he zoned out during work.

Loki had found that if he exercised hard before his evening confinement and then took a warm shower he could sometimes be tired and relaxed enough to really sleep. Not always, but it did help him not be so restless. Of course he had been sleeping better since Doctor Banner had switched his medicine to something he claimed would help both the panic attacks and the nightmares. One change had been he more often had nightmares about events that should legitimately cause them rather than them being triggered by dreams of odd random everyday life with his family.

When he wasn't busy having nightmares triggered by them, he missed his family so badly he could barely breath. So no change there he thought wryly. No matter what they distressed him. It was funny how something didn't change.

But still… While he had often chaffed under Odin's degrees he couldn't imagine doing anything that would warrant this type of sentence.

Unless… Loki's breath caught painfully, causing him to stumble. No. Surely Odin was not dead. After a few minutes of mindless dread his common sense kicked in. If he had conspired with people who wanted Odin dead, the punishment would have been to be summarily executed, not shipped to another realm for imprisonment.

When he had first awoke he had suspected that Stark was holding him for ransom or some Midgardian political gain, but he has seen contract. Even if the contract was fake, which he didn't believe for a second, he had been here too long for something like that. So Loki figured that he was on Midgard due to some sort of palace revolt or treason as a political prisoner, that was the only thing he could think of that would result in missing memories, no contact from his family and being on a seldom visited realm.

Of course one thing Loki couldn't figure out was how long he would be here. He wondered how long it would be before something happened to let to give him a clue or at least break the monotony of his day to day existence.

As if on cue, as he emerged from the area behind the elevator shaft he noticed a strange shimmering in near his projected path. Odd…

In the few steps it took Loki to slow down, the shimmering blinked out and he only had enough time to think of what deep shit he was in before he launched into an attack

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes -** And that is that. Let me know what you think.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	16. Chapter 16 - Stealth

**Chapter Summary**: The sugar hits the fan so to speak. Did you know that Tony's tower has trigger happy security guards?

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Chapter three of Seven of your Christmas Pressie. If you want to return the gift, I will take comments, lots and lots of lovely comments. Tied up in verbal bows please!

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 16 – Stealth**

"Sir, I really don't think this is a good idea."

"Yeah? Well guess what Jarvis, I happen to think it is a great idea, so zip it." Tony ground out belligerently as the elevator moved down the special 'Guest' level. Stupid name, but Pepper insisted that he use it on all files, emails and conversations.

The elevator doors opened silently, Jarvis over riding the chiming notification and Tony quietly stepped out into the security entrance. Fortunately the Mark 15 not only had chameleon camouflage technology, but it was slimmer and lighter and was actually able to be stealthy. If you really looked at it of course you could see something, but it was more like a heat wave ripple of something not quite right rather than an image that could be instantly identified. A quick glance in his direction wouldn't really show anything attention getting.

He was darkly amused to note that the music level was high enough that he could have clomped in wearing one of his heavy suits and no one would have noticed. As the elevator doors slid open, Tony crossed in font of Loki's work area. A prison sweat shop in his tower. Fuck. He would have given the annoying shit anything he had wanted if he had just cooperated a bit. Okay, so maybe he had kinda forgotten the guy was even here, six days out of seven, but he had been pretty busy. Stuff like his company having sales contractions for the first time in forever or the problems with getting the Arc Reactors certified in the EU as an equivalent to a regular power plant rather than them trying to tie Stark industries up like they were trying to build a nuclear power plant or some damn thing.

But hey, who cares about that, he thought. Pepper was cured and totally on top of getting the regulations changed, and he Tony Stark would beat Jane Foster in building a functional Einstein-Rosen bridge, it was a race, but she was barely out of the starting gate. First he wanted to go from one end of the planet to another, to build interest and assure funding, then easily go to earth's satellites for servicing, god wouldn't that rake in the dough. And then... who knew? However far they could get in the universe. First as Stark International Transport and then later as Stark Galactic Transport. And all he had to do was convince Frigga's baby boy that he was done fucking around with him and it was time to play nice or Uncle Tony was going to flip his shit.

Tony stood there a moment, his bad mood not eliminated, but temporarily set aside as he got caught up in the whole engineering goodness of it all. He had Jane Foster's papers of course. Hell she sent them to him to ask his opinion on them, he would of course make sure she was cut in for her fair share of the money and credit, but Tony was determined that his name was going to also be on the patent when it was filed. And of course Stark International was going to be the one reaping the benefits. Definitely not Hammer Industries or whatever fucking 'do nothing' joke of a low bidder the government would pick if they controlled the patent. Nope, his company was going to build them and His company was going to run them. Besides, Tony's always wanted a Wonder of the World named after him and that is exactly what the first intergalactic gate will be.

And all he had to do was make nice with Frigga's pride and joy. Hell if he helped Tony figure this out, Jane wouldn't be the only one compensated. Loki could have his own island as a prison with hot and cold running hookers for all Tony cared.

Of course it was a good thing Tony wasn't thinking too much about where the thoughts of scantily clad hookers were coming from... other than the bottom of a bottle of whisky of course... as he stood there he couldn't help but be pretty fucking mesmerized by the sweat covered limber body that ducked and weaved and frankly made a few moves that he wasn't sure a mortal body was should be capable of... the boy from Asgard was very impressive. Not all muscle-y and burley Thor impressive, rather more lean and elegant premier ballerina or world class gymnast, Loki'ish impressive.

He had told Jarvis to save these exercise sessions, to a secure server of course like everything concerning his guest, but Tony was maybe rethinking this and wondering how Stark International could market the damn things, Exercise with a Megalomaniac? Get that Celtic guy to create a musical score and brand them as Asgardian Dance? Heck either one teased on YouTube would immediately climb to the top of the Amazon DVD rankings.

Wait, did he just even seriously think that? Okay... maybe a bit too much booze this afternoon, so chalk it up to that and let's not go to go there right now. But who knows, maybe later? After all, the guy was going to be here a while, he might be up for it someday. Tony watched for about twenty minutes until Loki broke out of his dance routine or whatever it was and diva'd several overly complicated bows to his invisible friends before switching to a quick step jog of some sort.

Tony flipped up his visor and stepped forward several paces. "Hey Reindeer Games, I want to talk to you a few minutes."

Shit.

_Shit, shit, shit! _

Where Tony previously had a blissfully unaware sweaty ex-Norse god jogging around the floor… In mid step for crying out loud, Loki rolled forward smacking his heels hard against Tony's armored midsection and using that leverage to back flip away from Tony. While it didn't really hurt, it did jar the suit enough to make Tony's alcohol abused stomach want to hurl.

Swallowing hard, Tony angrily shouted, "Hey, settle down. I just want to talk to you."

Loki had landed lightly and took off running in the opposite direction of Tony, not that he was worried about that, there really wasn't anywhere for him to go now that the security snafu's had all be corrected and were now under Jarvis' control.

Loki disappeared behind the central elevator shaft where Tony couldn't see him. Possibly retreating to his room, which Tony would be totally cool with. Loki would be locked up behind glass and Tony could take off the suit and talk to him. Get some shit ironed out. Maybe yell at him a bit. Bribe him a little. Who knows?

"Jarvis if he heads to his room, lock him in for me okay?"

"Of course sir," the AI replied. A few moments later he said, "Sir, he's grabbed his sweatshirt from the floor and is headed towards the emergency stairs."

"Okay Jarv, I got it, just make sure this floor stays locked down."

"Very good si-"

"Sir, he's just opened up the door emergency stairs!" The AI… yelped. Who knew that Javis could yelp? Interesting, but Tony had other priorities right now.

"What the fuck Jarvis! I told you to make sure the emergency exits were locked when he was out of his cell!" Tony shouted, moving as fast as he could in a suit not exactly designed for indoor use. Or at least not indoor use if you cared about your floor surfaces.

"I don't understand sir, the door was locked, but he somehow opened it and went through."

Cursing, Tony made his way to the door, having to wait a moment for Jarvis to open it for him. As he reached for it, a small scrap of paper that had been stuck to it at waist level floated to the floor. Interesting, but Tony had no time for that now. "Up or down Jarv?"

"Down sir, at quite some speed I might add."

Crap, there were a lot more floors below him, than there were above. Also he could have carefully flew up the narrow stairs, going down would be a bit trickier. "Jarv, there is a scrap of paper on the floor by the emergency stair door, please send Dummy or Minion to retrieve it." Tony decided to try hopping down the stairs and using a short blast of his repulsors to go from half landing to half landing.

"I'm not sure if that paper is important but I want it just in case."

"At once sir."

"Loki! Damn it, Stop! Come back here. Now!" Tony shouted.

Like shouting 'come back here' was going to work, he thought sourly.

After about the fifth hop, he was starting to get the hang of step jumping. It wasn't as fast as flying, but it was faster than him trying to lumber down the steps with his suit on… And a lot easier on the building.

"Sir! That paper might be part of a spell of some sort. Mister Odinson is about nine floors below you. He's put on his sweat shirt, zipped it up and has pulled a small handful of paper scraps out of each pocket. He licked one and held it to his temple a moment, before whispering to another and tossing it down on the stairs. A heavy block fog is issuing from it as it descends the stairwell.

"On it Jarvis." Tony called, flipping his visor down and calling up thermal imaging displays.

"Sir you may want to seal your face plate and go to filtered air. There is no telling if the blackout smoke is comprised of any sort of noxious product or not."

Tony pressed down harder and heard the hiss of seals being tested. "Good idea, Jarvis see if you can vent this shit. But not through the building's internal air, direct to outside just in case."

"Of course-. Sir! The door on the fifty-third floor has just opened."

"What the hell is on that floor?" Tony asked, trying to hop faster.

"Bid Proposals are by the stairs. I can't tell if he exited he stair well sir, but there is a cloud of black fog moving and extending towards the central area." Jarvis paused a moment, and while I can no longer hear him on the stairs, I can't hear him in the office area either."

A trick possibly, Tony thought. "Anyone on that floor?"

"None that I can see, everyone assigned to that level is logged off, so the floor should be empty."

Unless they logged off and didn't go home yet, Tony thought bitterly. Or someone on the janitorial or maintenance crew is up there. Or someone who forgot a file or coat or phone came back to get it.

Happy was right, they did need key carding on all the floors and elevators.

_Fuck. _

What a pain in the ass that will be. And Happy? Worse. He was always the smuggest bastard in the world when his genius boss finally had to admit the he was wrong and Happy was right.

_Double Fuck._

"Well, just let me know if anything happens there Jarvis. The only thing we can do is keep an eye on that floor as best we can. If he is up there maybe we'll get lucky and the bastard will slip up." He leapt down to the next landing, "I'm going to stay in the stairwell. I could be wrong and he could have thought of some way being higher up will help, but I just can't imagine what he could do being trapped on a floor too high up to escape from."

"Yes sir."

Tony concentrated on his leaping, which was not nearly as much fun when he was actually worried about damaging his own property. He swore in his next building he was making all the stair wells large enough to fly in, or at least do quarter landings with an open center box so he could just do a slow drop down the middle of the damn things. He was just about to tell Jarvis to make a note for his next building to have open wells large enough for his suit when the AI spoke.

"Sir! The door for the forty-second floor has opened. I did see Mr. Odinson for brief moment just entering before he was hidden again by black fog and again there is a cloud of black fog moving and extending towards the central area."

"Fuck! Anyone on that floor Jarvis?"

"Yes sir, I have told everyone it is a localized problem that is being contained and asked them to evacuate via the elevator, avoiding the stairs. I also sounded a localized alarm through my speakers so that no one thinks they need to trigger a real fire alarm."

"Oh thank god Jarv, try to get everyone in the elevator and off that floor before the fog gets anywhere near the elevator," Tony said his voice cracking slightly. ""Good work keeping them away from the fire alarms, that's all we need is the fire department and the police showing up here just as the Bane of New York pops out an elevator."

Tony had just about made it to the forty-second floor, when Jarvis reported to him that the black fog had rolled over the people waiting to get on the elevator to evacuate.

"Any screaming on the elevator Jarivs?" the billionaire asked apprehensively.

"No sir, a lot of loud chatter and some low grade alarm, but nothing to indicate than anyone is in distress." Jarvis reported soothingly.

"As long as no one is screaming, slow up the elevator as much as you can without stopping it, I want to meet it on the main floor."

Tony started hopping faster and occasionally smacking into a wall. The drywall guys were going to be pretty busy by the time he made it to the ground floor.

But as fast as Tony was, apparently a psychotic god in tennis shoes was faster.

"Sir, a door has opened on the ninth floor and the black fog is making its way from the stairwell. I have instituted an evacuation of this floor also."

_Fuck again._

While he didn't want anything to tip off the authorities, Tony was thinking that he should have just evacuated the whole building from git-go.

"Fine, fine," he huffed, throwing caution and carefulness to the wind and just slamming from one landing to the next. Blind jumping works a lot better when he has time to consult the blueprint on his HUD. Since he currently doesn't have the time to make those jumps, he tearing up walls yes, but also scrapping the hell out of his suit.

He isn't sure what is going on with the other floors, he suspects it is little more than a decoy move on the god's part. One that is causing Tony a lot of trouble and one he doesn't intend to fall for since by now he is now pretty sure that Loki has no intention of leaving the stairwell. Tony just hopes he doesn't kill the guy by accident slamming into him in the dark.

Because if Loki was going to die today, Tony would like it to be on purpose so he can enjoy it when it occurs. Tony resolutely turned his thoughts away from the idea of how nice it would be if he could be the one who killed the annoying ex-deity.

_What the hell is this fog composed of that it doesn't allow Jarvis' thermal cameras to work,_ he wondered. _Damn it's a shame I'm not still in the weapons business, I could have found a use for it._

"Only two more landings till the exit on the main floor sir, the lower door has not been opened," Jarvis informed him.

"If you don't find him on the last landing, I will hold the elevators until you get there and open them one at a time on your command."

"Okay thanks buddy," Tony said. The last few flights he had been holding his arms wide, brushing the walls trying to make sure if there is someone standing there in the blackout fog where he can't see them, he will at least be able to feel them.

OoooO

While runes might not be his preferred kind of magic, they were all he has left right now so Loki is making the best of them. And he has a lot of them to make best of. All hidden in the pouch pockets of the fleece jacket he had been given. The right hand pocket held scraps of paper with runes on them to open any locked items; the left hand pocket had a few flat scraps with runes on them allowing him to see clearly in all circumstances… Pockets? Pouches? Midgardian clothing was so strange.

At any rate he also had several small dove like creatures made of folded paper with runes that can be activated to make them to fly in the direction they were tossed and latch onto the first person they found. Of course their wings also had runes calling for an impenetrable fog, which they would carry with them in their quest. Quite a tidy bit of rune casting if Loki has to say so himself.

Oh, the runes to make the paper birds fly and the fog runes were straight forward. When he wanted them to work all he had to do was say the proper words to activate them and breathe life to them. But figuring out how to use runes pre-drawn on paper rather than being drawn on the item affected was a nice adaptation. The ones to open anything locked or closed and the ones to grant him sight in any circumstance, those took a bit of thought. But writing the runes backwards and then moistening them so the ink had a medium to touch the rune with the actual item being affected worked fairly well.

Even if the way he was using the runes wasn't something that was normally done. Loki surely never cared about being conventional in the past, and he wasn't about to start now. Although it certainly wasn't a very elegant application method, Loki's old Rune Master would have been appalled. Using strange mass produced mortal ink? Wood pulp paper? Saliva instead of blood or any other precious bodily fluid? The old fool would be in a complete lather over such antics. While Loki also appreciated elegant solutions to problems, he was also very much okay with practical ones if the circumstances called for it.

It hadn't been easy testing his theories with that Jarvis watching him day and night, but he did manage to accomplish it. Not with the 'Open' rune obviously, but other runes that could be inconspicuously tested while he was perfecting his technique. So not knowing when he would use them, he had been prepared for the last several weeks. Since his mother had gone to such lengths to place him here, he'd decided to stay for as long as he was still learning about Midgard, able to strengthen his mortal body and stay unharmed. Mortal or not he kept telling himself, he still had some time that could be spent waiting and learning.

Measured time. Limited measured time.

Loki had refused to allow himself to hope that his mother would appear to tell him what was going on. Anytime the thought of his mother or his impending mortal death intruded he ruthlessly banished it from his thoughts. He just couldn't afford to wallow in either hopeless sentiment or despair. Of course there could be a good reason for all that he was currently experiencing, but then again just as easily it could turn out that he was imprisoned and sentenced to death for exactly the reasons he feared.

So Loki did what he always did, he planned and prepared.

Loki was ready to respond when Stark appeared out of nowhere to attack him. Actually he was amazed it had taken the man this long. Loki could have defended himself with a few lethal runes, but there was always the chance that he had mistaken the situation or that some of his runes would fail. The chance of failure was slight, but not one he cared to risk his now fragile life over. So in the event of a miscarriage of his plans, he could not provoke the man or his associates into doing him permanent harm.

When Stark appeared, Loki had avoided a fight and choose flight. Licking one of his 'Open' rune scraps, allowing his living breath to wash over it, he affixed it to the door holding it flat with his palm and whispering the words of activation. There were so many ways this could have gone wrong. The rune could have not activated, the door could have been protected against spells by an Asgardian mage, the door could have been made of a naturally resistant material. Anything could have gone wrong.

But it didn't, Loki thought smugly. While he had never advertised it, he had always had a gift for the more passive forms of power.

Running down the stairs he pulled one of the flat runes for clear sight out of his other pocket, licking and holding it to his temple while he whispered the release words. After that it was simplicity its self. Activating two of his fog birds, he sent one flying down the stairs spreading darkness in its wake, the other he held, allowing a dense fog form around him as he fled down the stairs. By the time he heard Stark crashing through the door, he imagined that the stair well was filled with enough darkness to foil Jarvis' eyes, so he tossed the bird back in Stark's direction. If the spell recognized him as a living creature, which was by no means assured since he was covered head to toe in metal, it would attach itself to him. But even if his construct didn't attach to Stark, the darkness and other concealment attributes of the rune would be reinforced in the stairway.

Three more times Loki used the runes to open doors, releasing birds to spread darkness and confusion. After releasing the first, he had quickly taken off his shoes and tucked them in the waist band of his pants so he couldn't be heard as he ran lightly down the steps in his socks. The fog would interfere with all forms of vision except for his and should Jarvis cut out the lights, his clear vision rune would allow him to see in the dark.

However muffling sound was another rune for another day, so making sure Jarvis couldn't track him by sound was important, so Loki made sure to run lightly and to silence his breathing. He was already skilled at stealth running, but he had been perfecting those skills for the last few weeks.

The third door Loki opened, he had actually slipped through keeping it from closing all the way. He could hear the consternation his construct and the fog were causing as it found a host and he could hear Stark lumbering down the stairs behind the mostly closed door. Waiting a few seconds for Stark to pass, Loki slipped back out the door into the black fog filled stairway and made his silent, soft, sock footed way down the stairs behind him.

OoooO

Tony smacked hard into the wall in front of him.

_Fuck._

He was on the ground floor and there was no Loki, nor had Jarvis reported the ground floor door opening.

"Jarvis, any chance he went down to the parking garage?" Tony wasn't sure if he was hopeful of this or not. On one hand there would be way more places for Loki to hide, behind cars, under cars, behind pillars, fuck, inside cars that weren't locked, up in the mechanicals tucked in various shafts. Lots and lots of places. On the other hand there were no people down there, so no one to worry about Loki hurting anyone as he tried to escape.

"I don't think so sir, the door leading down to the lower levels hasn't been opened, nor is there any smoke in the lower stair well."

"Okay… Where then?"

"I'm not sure, sir. Perhaps he is still in the stairwell?"

"Crap"

"Sir," the AI's called urgently, "the elevator was called to the ninth floor."

Tony hit the panic bar on the exit door barreling out to the side of the first floor lobby heading towards the central bank of elevators. "Bring it down Jarvis, override any stops to any other floors. And try to find out who is inside. I want you to let them out one at a time. Tell the lobby guards to be careful there is possibly a maniac loose in the building, one with some pretty slick kung-fu moves. Describe what Loki is wearing, but don't tell them his name."

OoooO

Loki stopped a few steps from the bottom, as Stark paused for a minute at the last landing, holding himself absolutely still as the man turned and looked back up the stairway, before taking a half step to the side and looking down a short hallway to a door marked Garage Stairs with a small arrow point down. He made a few agitated movements with his hands before spinning around and throwing the door marked Lobby – Main Exit open and rushing through it.

Before the door could close Loki slipped through right behind him. Stark apparently was not human seeming enough for the bird to have attached itself to him or perhaps the rune had already expended itself. But fortunately for Loki, he could see hazy swirls that let him know that enough of the fog escaped through the open door to at least confuse things for another minute or two. Especially since he held the door open to allow it to escape, using the fog cover to hide him long enough to slip his trainers back on and find an exit.

Loki debated letting off a few more birds so he could stealthily make his way out of the building, but the multi-story area was too large to fill with fog even if he set off multiple birds, and besides, he might need them later.

So taking a large breath and sending a quick plea to the Norms, Loki let go of the door and sprinted to the glass door several dozen yards away. The entrance area was almost empty and he could see through the huge glass walls that it was almost sunset, which he supposed would account for the lack of people on the street outside. He was perhaps only a few yards from the door when a shout rang out.

"Stop! Stop right now or we'll shoot."

Loki slid to the floor, just as the door in front of him bucked in its frame. A large flower like flaw appeared on the door, perhaps two feet up from the floor.

"Are you fucking crazy?! I want you to stay away from him, not kill him!" a voice roared.

Loki scrambled to his feet and pushed through the door, staying low and slipping past a woman that was halfway out of the second set of doors a few body lengths away, she was so stunned looking back towards the disturbance, she never even glanced down at him.

The sidewalks might have been fairly empty, but the roads surrounding the building were still teaming with transports. Sprinting to the corner, was able to cross without stopping by threading his way carefully through a scattering of pedestrians that the transports had stopped for. Although his entire being rebelled against it, he slowed down enough not to knock anyone over; he didn't want any screams drawing attention to his flight. As soon as he reached the other side of the road, the sidewalks were more sparsely populated and he took off at top speed  
intending to turn at the next break in the buildings. He glanced back as he turned the corner and saw Stark's metal amour hovering a dozen feet above the ground looking in his direction.

_Marvelous. _

The Norms really, really hated him; the damn armor was flight capable.

Sprinting around the corner, Loki jigged his way through a gap in the transports making it to the other side of the street with only one near death incident. Halfway down the length of buildings, he saw a transport come out of a narrow alley. He didn't think he could make it to the end of the block before Stark could catch up with him, so the alley was definitely worth investigating. Perhaps there would be somewhere to hide there, or an open door he could dart into. Norms knew right now he'd settle for a bunch of rubbish bins to hide behind until pursuit had past him.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes -** Just for the record... This was a phenomenally bad idea. But as you know, it is impossible to tell Tony anything sometimes.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	17. Chapter 17 - Flight!

**Chapter Summary**: An ex-god of Asgard on the loose in NYC. This does not make for a happy Tony.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

Chapter Four of Seven of your Christmas Pressie. If you want to return the gift, I will take comments, lots and lots of lovely comments. Verbal eggnog so to speak. :)

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 17 – Flight! **

"Sir! Loki is heading towards the main doors!"

"On it Jarvis. Release the elevators." Tony spun and headed towards the doors, cursing as one of the lobby guards stepped away from the reception desk and shouted.

"Stop! Stop right now or we'll shoot."

And then the bastard did! Luckily for Tony's heart, Loki had dove forward when the guard shouted so the bullet aimed at his leg flew over him. Tony flashed on how painful death by electro-hammer would have been as the bullet struck the door only a few inches above the god's head. Not a lot of an improvement in Tony's opinion but at least the bastard wasn't dead or suffering from a 'Oh Christ I have to have an Insane Mass Murderer rushed to a local hospital' gunshot wound.

"Are you fucking crazy?!" Tony screamed at the guard, "I want you to stay away from him, not kill him!" He ran across the floor, no doubt causing the night cleaning crew a ton of extra work as his boots scratched up the polished stone floor. "Jarvis authorize over time for the floor crew and tell me which way he went!" He shouted as he barreled out the doors, right behind some woman scrambling to get out of his way.

_Fucking hey. _

"He turned right sir."

Tony turned towards the right but couldn't immediately see Loki. As soon as he figured the woman he had followed out the door was far enough away he hit his repulsors hard, rising up a story or two for an unimpeded view.

"Jarvis, he crossed the street and is turning left at the next corner, see if you can access him on any security cameras over that way." Tony said as streaked through the air following the god.

Just as Tony flew around the corner he saw Loki half way down the block, before he could get to him the god dove into an alley.

Tony's heart dropped when he heard brakes screech and a horn blare…

_Please let there be need for scream_s, he prayed.

Tony turned into the narrow alley just in time to see a car still rocking from a hard stop about a hundred feet away and tall dark godling leaping like a gazelle from the car's hood onto its roof.

Tony hit his thrusters hard and nabbed Loki around his waist in midair just as the god was about to jump off the car's roof onto its trunk. Carrying an arm load of struggling mischief maker Tony headed straight up away from any prying eyes or security cameras, flying up into the darkening sky with the now screaming god.

For a moment Tony thought the god might have been injured from the impact when Tony grabbed him, but if he was, that wasn't what he was screaming about.

"Let me go you gibbering monkey!" Loki yelled, banging his elbows backwards trying to strike Tony's neck.

Not that his attempt would have done anything, well maybe bruised Loki's elbows. He then started screaming stuff about Tony being the son of a diseased whore and a defiler of animals and really lots and lots of cursing without using any words that Tony could really identify as swear words in and of themselves. Tony just flew higher, intending to get them out of the range roof top camera wielders. There are a lot more sunset photographers than you would think in New York. Pictures of Iron Man flying have been on more than enough Facebook pages for Tony to be well aware of just how many there are.

After a minute or two Tony is high enough to feel safe. While it hasn't taken very long to get beyond camera range it was a long enough period of time for a screaming Norse god to get on his last god damned nerve.

_Pun achieved, but not intended, _he thought before turning his attention to the irritation at hand.

"Will you just shut the fuck up already?" he finally demanded.

"láta mig fara, þú hóra ódýr!" Loki screamed kicking his heels against Tony's shins. It didn't hurt, but it was as annoying as hell.

Why Flawed Design switched languages Tony has no idea. "Javis any idea what he is saying?"

"I'm not sure sir, possibly he wants you to be let go, I'm not sure what he rest was."

"Well, it's probably wasn't nice," Tony said as he tried to decide if he was far enough away from anyone who might have watched him take off with a passenger. "He's already told me I have sexual congress with unwilling animals and my mother was a woman of negotiable affection."

"Yes sir, I did hear that those ones."

"Sir, the police have arrived at the tower, they want to know what is going on."

Tony sighed, "Jarvis, tell them that I found a homeless maniac in the building threatening people, he took off and I lost him when he ducked down into the subway."

"Let me go you poisonous bunch-back'd bilgesnipe!"

"Look Princess you need to shut the fuck up 'cause you have already pissed me off big time. You scream one more thing at me and I will fuckin' drop you. Oh and Jarvis, tell them I want to buy a dozen tickets to their next charity event."

"You brainless oaf! Let me go!"

"And now you have totally pissed me off," Tony said flatly, opening his arms to let gravity take the god.

"Sir, are you sure this is a wise idea sir?" Jarvis chided him gently.

"Of course it is Jarvis, the police will be happy and I'll be able to give them to some of the office staff." Tony said snidely as he swung around and heading back the way he had just came.

"Very amusing sir, I meant dropping Mister Odinson."

"Relax Jarvis; I'll snag him up again before he freaks out. Well freaks out any more than he already had that is." Tony calculated an intersection angle for where the god should be falling and was surprised to find out that Loki was instead heading back the way Tony had just come from.

Loki's arms and legs were spread and he had his hoodie unzipped and was using it like… like… glider wings.

"What the hell? How is he even keeping his jacket on? Who does he think he is? Rocky the Flying Fucking Squirrel?!" Tony cursed angrily, his personal panic lending a sharp edge to fear for the ex-god's safety.

_Of course Loki knew how to free fall. His brother flew for Christ's sake. _

Tony wondered how may bets the asshole had won by evading his brother's attempts to catch him before making it to a lake.

_Or even a soft hillside,_ Tony thought, remembering when Thor had first thrown the younger god out of a plane without inflicting any injuries on him.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Tony screamed as he flew past Loki unable to grab him when the god suddenly curled up into a small ball and literally dropped out from under his out stretched arms.

_Oh my god. And not the crazy one I'm trying to catch. _

The penny had finally dropped for Tony. Loki was trying to get to the reservoir; he was going to try to dive into the reservoir. Pretty workable plan for an escaping god, not so much for someone in a mortal body.

"You'll never survive it," Tony screamed using every external speaker on full, not caring one bit if anyone over heard him. "Mortal bodies can't survive even a water landing from this height!"

He caught a glimpse of a shocked white face twisted and staring up at him as he spun back towards the once again spread out and free falling god.

"I'm telling you, hitting the water at this speed will kill you!"

Loki looked up at the screaming man in his metal suit, from the expressions flickering across his face he was obviously trying to decide if Tony was telling the truth.

Stark had turned and was once again on course to grab him. He could see, the split second when Loki had either decided he was lying or more ominously decided it didn't matter. The insane god threw himself forward in an angled dive that dropped him so quickly that Stark once again couldn't reach him as he flew past.

"Are you insane!" Tony shrieked firing off energy blasts from his hands and feet, going into a powered dive. Loki was running out of time and altitude, Tony had to get him soon.

"You don't heal like you used to anymore," Tony bellowed, trying to put something, anything into his voice to convince the plummeting god to believe him. He hit his thrusters hard, trying to get far enough below the god to try coming up on him at an angle that would be impossible to evade with just momentum.

The trick of course being not to fall so far that Tony didn't have enough time for his repulsors to keep him from spatting onto one of the rapidly approaching buildings. He most likely would be fine, his passenger, not so much.

"Loki, if it doesn't kill you out right, you'll spend the rest of your life in pain as a helpless cripple!"

_Oh._

Well that seemed to have worked. Loki looked down at him with real horror; the idea of painful permanent crippling was apparently something he had forgotten was possible. Granted the god had spent centuries in an invincible death-resistant body, but he had to remember he didn't have that body anymore. Just like the rest of Earthgard he was going to experience life in the new realm of a mortal existence that included lots of potential pain.

_Which admittedly sucked if you had previously been an impervious god. _

Loki had just enough time to look down at him with abject terror before Tony hit every thruster he could, managing to snag the god's torso with a rib creaking hit and gain a little altitude.

Okay, so he didn't immediately gain altitude. There was a bit of heart stopping up blast from the roof of a building they almost fell through. However gravity lost its attempt to ensnare them and Tony made it back up into the air.

"Speakers back to normal." Tony said, trying not to wheeze. It took a minute for the bands of panic around his chest to loosen, but eventually he was able to gather a much needed deep breath.

Neither of them spoke until Tony shifted his grip on Loki. And even then, the god didn't speak, he merely groaned, and pushed against Tony's arms, seemingly not so much trying to escape as to ease the pressure on his chest.

"Look, if I loosen my grip will you promise not to try anything else stupid?" He demanded as he flew them back towards Stark Tower.

Tony could feel the god push again, trying unsuccessfully to get the suit's arms to more.

"Yes," the god coughed. "Please."

So Tony loosed his grip a bit and made a beeline for the penthouse platform. At the last minute he changed his mind and over flew it and instead landed on the terrace outside the entertainment floor. The platform was way too open, an accidental misstep all too possible with two people on it, especially if only one of which was latched into the suit removal system. Especially if only one of them was not potentially suicidal.

OoooO

As miserable as he was from the bruising on his chest and ribs and as mad as he was at allowing this stupid body's fight or flight instincts over take him, again. There was still no way that Loki was going to pass up the chance to get a look at the outside area of the building he was imprisoned in. He just wished it wasn't so dark out.

He pushed against Stark's armor, trying to get a bit of pressure off his ribs.

"Look, if I loosen my grip will you promise not to try anything else stupid?" The mortal asked him in words he barely heard before they were ripped away by the wind.

Loki coughed and agreed, drawing in painful gulps of air as the hard metal arms loosed enough for him to breathe deeper. The arms were looser, but nowhere near loose enough to allow him to escape again… Or fall.

Not that he intended to try that again. Norns no. It was painful and terrifying and in the rush to escape he had totally forgotten how fragile this damn body was.

Oh, he should have been able to make it to the lake he had seen nestled amongst the trees; Loki had no doubt of that, he and Thor had played this game numerous times. However Stark was much more maneuverable than Thor, so Loki had lost more altitude than he should have trying to evade him. There had been a very real possibility he would have fallen short of his goal. But even if he had made it to the water that much time in a dive rather than a controlled glide would have meant a brutal hit even for his old body. Perhaps not as bad as Stark had claimed, but he couldn't quite be sure.

Disgusted he quit fighting to hold himself stiff against Stark's momentum and allowed his head to bang lightly against the armored shoulder behind him.

"What the fuck were you thinking dude?" Stark growled in his ear.

Honestly Loki couldn't have told him if he had wanted too. But he knew that in this fragile breakable body with no powers to draw on if he miscalculated… So that little trick was too dangerous to try again.

OoooO

"Jarvis, wait until we land and then hit the privacy lights." Tony said, turning in the air before angling his thrusters to allow him to slowly lower them both to the patio area.

The second they landed, Tony shifted his grip to the god's left wrist and Jarvis hit the perimeter lights. The lights were on the outside of the building, low enough down that they didn't light up the patio itself and angled interfere with anyone trying to watch or take pictures of his patio.

"What the fuck do you think you were doing?" he demanded flipping up the face plate on his helmet. "If you had killed yourself your mom and Thor would have probably blasted my entire tower to rubble!"

The god collapsed at his feet declined to answer him, Tony popped a pair of cuffs from one of the suits storage compartments and slapped one end on the wrist he was holding. Loki tried to jerk away, but Tony stepped behind him, reaching over to snare the trickster's other wrist, wrenching it back and encircling it with the other handcuff before placing his gauntleted hand around Loki's upper arm and yanking him up and spinning him around.

"What in the hell was that all about?" He demanded gauntleted hands holding Loki so they were almost nose to nose.

Loki gave a raspy laugh, "It's called an escape attempt Stark. Surely I don't need to explain the concept to you." He let an uncertain look wash across his face, "Or do I?"

"Very funny smart ass," Tony growled glaring at him.

"Wait a minute, Something isn't right here…"

Tony's angry glare morphed into a puzzled inspection.

Loki smirked, raising one brow. "Many things are not currently right in my opinion Stark." he said with a soft chuckle.

Without answering, Tony released one of his arms and hauled him over to the terrace doors. "Jarvis, release the lower parts of my suit please."

"At once sir," the AI responded over the slight noise of his suit legs retracting away from him.

Tony stepped out of the suit boots and opened the terrace door, pushing Loki ahead of him. Not wanting to take any chance of being spied on he said, "Close all the drapes, lights up full please Jarv." Tony said, shoving Loki further into the large living room before pushing him into one of the overstuffed chairs. "Don't even think of moving until I tell you to," he growled, removing his helmet and setting it on a nearby table.

"You know, you could just ask nicely," Loki said his voice and expression projecting mocking amusement. Something though made Tony think that Loki was a lot less calm that he was trying to project.

"No. I'm done asking nicely. From now on it's more you'll do what you're told." Tony said almost flatly, coming back to stand in front of the god and lifting the tricksters chin with one gauntleted hand before asking in a troubled voice, "Why aren't your eyes bright blue?"

Loki wrenched his face away with a hiss, but it only took a moment Tony to shake off one gauntlet and recapture Loki's chin with his now bare hand.

"I'm sorry if the color offends you Stark," the god spat, struggling to pull away as Tony turned his head to view Loki's eyes at a different angle.

"How long have they been green?" Tony mused bringing up his other still gauntleted hand to hold Loki's head still at the desired angle. "Jarvis? Check all the pictures we have, oh and check for contacts if you can." He crouched down almost on top of the god, studying his eyes intently for several long moments.

"I'm not kissing you Stark," Loki gritted through his tightly held jaw.

Tony's eyes widened as he realized how close their faces were to each other.

Noting his dismay Loki lifted a teasing brow and managed to move enough to dislodge the hand on his chin, "While I am as adventurous as the next person, you really haven't given me any reason to want to have an intimate encounter with you."

He laughed when Tony leap back as if struck, "Besides, while it has been some time Stark, I do have standards you know." He cast a dismissive look up and down Tony's partially armored frame. "Although," he said almost contemplatively, "I can see that you try extremely hard to compensate. So you should get points for effort I suppose."

Tony could feel his face turning red, while other areas of him expressed disappointment. Not that he had been thinking that of course, he was in a committed relationship for heaven's sake.

_Why the hell am I feeling so flustered?_ He wondered. _And why is he even thinking that will work to upset me. _Tony was fairly shameless, but then again the god would have no way of knowing that he supposed.

"Ha ha dipshit," Tony retorted, grabbing the front of the god's shirt and jerking him to his feet with his still powered hand.

"Well you are masterful, I'll give you that one," the god said in a warm appreciative voice, which Tony ignored as he spun him around.

Fisting the chain of the handcuff, Tony used his unarmored hand to dive into the right hand pocket of the hoodie pulling out several scraps of scraps of paper which stuffed into his jean pocket. He quickly patted the god down on his right side, making sure he didn't have anything else hidden anywhere. Tony then backed the god up several feet before letting go of the cuffs and pressing on his chest to hold him against the wall so Tony's unarmored hand could check his other hoodie pocket.

"Seriously Loki? Origami?" he snorted dismissively stuffing the folded birds and other papers into his back pocket to keep them separate.

Although you're fairly short, in all honesty you are not totally without attractive attributes," Loki purred.

Coloring, Tony started momentarily before resolutely completing his search, possibly just a bit rougher than it had been but at least without a comeback.

_Oh he knew what Loki was doing. The bastard was trying to embarrass him; well good luck there, Tony Stark did not get embarrassed._

But while Tony could tell himself he didn't embarrass all he wanted, he could feel that his face had grown warm.

"Hummmm?" Loki hummed inquiringly when Tony glanced up at him, an infuriating smile widening slowly across the god's face.

But it did strike Tony that something was just a bit off.

Ignoring the amused gleam in the god's eye, Tony snagged the his hoodie pulling him off the wall far enough that he could slid behind him and push him back towards the chair he had been sitting in a few minutes earlier.

"What you did tonight? Not cool." Tony growled standing over the seated deity. "I gave you a pass the first time. Not this time." He reached in his back pocket and took out one of the origami birds. There were several things drawn on its wings that Tony couldn't identify.

"What are these?" he demanded, thrusting the intricately folded paper towards Loki.

"It's a paper bird of course," Loki said calmly, "I would have thought that was not too much for your mortal brain to figure out."

"You know Vixen, you really, really need to lay off the smart answers and just start cooperating with me. Life could get really difficult otherwise if you know what I mean."

Loki's lip curled up at the corners and he widened both brows inquiringly. "And what makes you think that I can fathom what goes on in that feeble mortal mind of yours?" He asked facetiously tossing his head to move a long strand of hair that had fallen down in his face.

It was enough to anger a saint Tony thought, not that he was one. The smug jerk just sat there as calm and cool as you pleased, as if he wasn't a hand cuffed prisoner, as if Tony couldn't crush his bones in one armored fist. But Tony still felt something was wrong, something about this whole thing was bothering Tony. He studied the god closely. Aside from the off feeling those green eyes gave him, something was not matching up?

Tony peered at the god closely having a severe 'what was wrong with this picture' moment.

Squaring his shoulders Loki noted his regard and gave him an amused look in return.

Wait… That was it. No armor. Loki wasn't wearing his armor, or even all that complicated leather tunic and duster getup he wore when he was going Asgardian casual. Loki controlled his voice, his expression, hell even his freaking breathing to perfection, but the god didn't seem to realize that a thin, wife beater style undershirt was not doing a thing to hide his mortal body's racing heartbeat.

_Loki was afraid. Loki was aware of his current vulnerabilities and Loki was afraid. _

Good, Tony could work with that.

"Oh Rudolf, you think dropping you was bad? You have no idea of the things I have thought of doing to you if you don't start cooperating."

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes -** I totally can't believe Tony dropped him. I swear sometimes I am just typing away and this crap sneaks onto the screen. How does that happen?

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	18. Chapter 18 - Just trying to help

**Chapter Summary**: Tony just wants to help. Not everyone appreciates that!

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

I am so sorry this is so late. As some of you know I have been pretty sick the last two weeks, so lots didn't get done that needed finished by today... And then... The small cat freaked at some company and dashed up the chimney flue.

The Harley Quinn (the cat) has landed. Finally. Who knew the d*mn flue was even open? Who knew it would take seven hours to get her to come out. (She was sitting just out of reach, right behind a fifteen foot drop to a totally cinderblock enclosed area in the basement)

Once she descended, we closed the flue as much as we could and I am going to go get glass fireplace doors Thursday. With all I had to do today and as crappy as I still feel... I did not need this drama.

But this is not your problem, I know... so here is your chapter. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or a Kicking Kwanzaa!

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 18 – Just trying to help**

Loki was still giving him a shit eating grin when Tony took out his phone and started sending text instructions to Jarvis. Sliding his cell pack in his pocket he marveled at the control it took for Loki to project such a convincing amount of nonchalant, because Tony could see that the guy was scared shitless.

_A lot of self-control,_ Tony thought _or an awful lot of practice_.

If Loki had been wearing anything else, hell just a proper shirt, Tony would have never known how upset the god really was.

And he was good, Tony knew, he had buffed plenty of times in some pretty desperate situations, situations that he shied away from even thinking of. Even so Tony was beginning to think that Loki could more than give him a run for his money when it came to successfully bluffing a busted hand.

What else had the guy been bluffing about he wondered. And escaping Tony's tower with a few scraps of paper? Who the fuck could do something like that? Hell with the set up on Loki's floor Tony would have been hard pressed to prepare an escape without Jarvis giving warning. So with nothing but a few scraps of paper he managed to get out of a high security set up, but with a whole space army behind him he couldn't take over one freaking city?

_Why did this not add up?_

Well granted the Avengers had been there, but still all those ships just sitting up there in space? Wouldn't it have made more sense for them to exit the portal and disperse while the Avengers and the armed services tried to protect New York? Even if the portal hadn't yet been big enough for their capital ships to transverse, why hadn't everything else been on this side protecting the portal until it was bigger? What had Loki been waiting for that he didn't deploy them?

During the whole mess, Tony had briefly wondered why so much of the Chitauri fleet had just been sitting there on the other side of the portal waiting. While he was glad, since it made it easy for him to blow them all up… In hindsight it had bothered him. But with so much crap going on lately with the company and SHIELD and actually having a personal life he hadn't really hadn't had anytime to try and figure it all out. And of course it just irked the crap out of him that the one person who could have answered all these questions was standing right across from him and no longer had the memories to do so.

Or just no longer had access to the memories?

Where they gone, gone or was Loki's access to them just blocked?

Tony rubbed his eye's wearily. This was the kind of stuff he should have already thought through, would have already thought through… but damn, it had been a rough year.

_I need to just focus on this for right now, then figure out the other stuff. _

"So you going to tell me about the bird?" Tony asked tiredly lowering his head a bit and peering at Loki with one brow raised questioningly.

"I'm not inclined to do so," Loki told him seemingly calm. The sentiment of which was most likely not a lie, but again Tony could tell by the god's rapid heartbeat how upset he was and how much control that blasé delivery must have taken.

But afraid or upset or just determined, Loki was not about to give Tony any information willingly…

Until suddenly he was.

Tony had asked again… And Loki suddenly started talking. So much so that after ten minutes Tony was half tempted to duct tape his mouth shut just to hush him up.

But the god didn't say anything pertaining to Tony's questions. He just sidled off into little conversational eddies on the décor of the room. For instance, the shelf over the mantle was a very clean spare design and he liked the polished nickel supports, he thought the furniture was well crafted, very stylish if not quite his taste, although one of the vases on the bar shelf was very much to his taste and something like what he would have chosen for himself at home. But in the end it was just a bunch of polite nothings and no attempts to steer the conversation to items of interest, like how the hell he escaped with his magic blocked succeeded.

Then the conversation flipped without Tony realizing it. And he was definitely going to go over the security video to find out how the fuck that happened. At any rate, Loki mentioned that he was unfamiliar with the wood that paneled the fireplace wall and somehow suckered Tony into identifying it as a figured Cocobolo, explaining where it came from and the difficulties of working this particular hardwood. That had segued into a discussion of Cocobolo wood as the body of one of Tony's guitars and his thoughts on both the sound and looks that the hardwood provided musical instruments.

"Stop. Just stop," Tony demanded narrowing his eyes at the headache that was starting form over his left eye.

Loki raised a brow in polite inquiry.

"Very funny asshole. I'm not the one who needs to be talking."

"But Stark," the god gave a small smile, "I assure you that your discourse is both enlightening and entertaining. For a certain value of entertainment of course," he shrugged. "As it pertains to the level of boredom sitting somewhere chained up with nothing better to do that is." His lips curled into a wicked little smile.

_I could try harder, maybe threaten him,_ Tony thought. But threaten him with what? Besides what Tony really wanted to do was sit down and think about some stuff before he went there again. Some of this shit was not making a lot of sense, which could be the alcohol and him previously being three sheets to the wind, but Tony was starting to think that there was something else going on and he needed to get to the bottom of it before he ragged on the god anymore.

Besides the rest of the evening was going to be a bit stormy, so why get the guy in a worse mood before that happened.

And hey, getting Tony to go on a verbal ramble was pretty frickin' clever, he'd give the god that.

"Sir, the task you requested has been completed," Jarvis told him.

"Ah. Thanks Jarv. Come on you, since you're not answering any of my qustions, I think maybe it's time to get you back to your room. Besides, listening to you has given me a headache, and I would imagine you need to rest anyhow."

He watched as the god got up more gracefully than he would have thought possible from a low chair while having his hands cuffed behind him. Loki stood there a moment, taking a deep breath as Tony reached for his wrist, "Stark are you sure it was my discourse that gave you a headache? Could it perhaps have been caused by your heavy imbibing of spirits?"

Totally calm demeanor, racing pulse.

"You know," He told the god as they were in the elevator heading back to the guest floor, "you aren't at all like I was expecting you to be."

_In other words stupid for that lame ass escape attempt, but not a raving, frothing, joker-esk laughing lunatic who throws people out of windows. _

"By the way… And I really am not asking just to piss you off…. Why are your eyes green?"

OoooO

Minion, per Jarvis' instructions had the tethered cuff waiting several feet outside and slightly around the corner from the now frosted walls of Loki's cell. After he had clasped it around Loki's wrist, removed the handcuffs and has seen the exterior doors close behind the god, he told Jarvis to clear the walls. To say that Loki was upset once he cleared the second set of doors and noticed that his books and every scrap of paper was gone was bit of an understatement.

But the hell with him. Tony did what he had to do, he'd cool down in a day or two, certainly by dinner on Friday at any rate. Or at least the engineer hoped so.

Tony waved cheerily as the enraged god was pulled into the main cell and the inner doors closed behind him.

He waited until he was in the elevator before saying, "Jarvis is it me or did Flawed Design possibly try to commit suicide out there with his impromptu skydive?"

"It not really possible to tell sir, but Mister Odinson has not in the recent past been exactly noted for his mental stability."

"Tell me about it."

"Indeed sir. Of course one cannot make a decision of this magnitude however on one action that could also have also just been a lapse in judgment due to insufficient information about his changed circumstances."

"Yeah I guess not," Tony agreed bouncing up and down; trying to shake off the stiff muscles in his back from carrying around the top part of his suit without the support offered by the lower section. He could wait to get the damn thing off.

"The guy gives me a headache Jarvis. I can't figure him out, and what is up with the green eyes? When did those happen?"

"Well sir, if you recall you did wonder about that when he first woke up."

_Whoa._

"I did, didn't I? Why the hell is wrong with me? Why the hell didn't I look into it then?"

Tony was stunned, he seldom dropped the ball, well accidently dropped it anyhow. Of course if he had a nickel for every time he pretended to have forgotten to do something just to get out of it… Well he'd still have made it onto the Forbes, 'One Hundred Richest' list. But really, truly botching a follow up on something important to him? That was pretty damn rare.

OoooO

"Stark why are you sending me this crap?" Fury asked. His voice was remarkably calm even though several of the pictures Tony had sent were clearly SHIELD surveillance tapes that Tony had hacked from their system.

"Hey, I figured you'd be interested," Tony said.

It had taken a bit to bypass SHIELD's firewalls and get live feed from Fury's office, but Tony did not begrudge the effort one bit. Any amount of time was worth it to secretly watch Fury throw a silent fit. Not that you would know it to talk to him. Nope, if you knew how to hack the system… like Tony… You got to watch Fury clench his fists, grimace, glare at the phone and make all kinds of lovely faces while making sure his voice sounded only mildly irritated that Tony was interrupting his day.

"Oh we're interested Stark. We're interested in making sure that it does not become general knowledge that the Menace of New York was only a pawn and that some other bigger badder fuck is out there running around free, hopefully without another army. I know you think we're stupid over here, but this is not the first time this possibility has been brought up."

Ah, wonderful, apparently Tony's totally fucked up Fury's week by sending him close-ups of the god that were taken during Loki's first appearance, the fight in New York and in the few minutes before the mischief maker's departure. While a lot of the pictures he'd hacked from SHIELD's surveillance system were not great quality, the ones from Tony's penthouse living room, deck area and his personal phone photos from right before he was whisked away to fairy land clearly showed the god's eye color undergoing dramatic color changes.

No matter what noises Fury made about the differing light affecting the way Loki's iris color looked.

Tony was just a bit bummed that he couldn't send him a more recent scan, which clearly showed the completed change. He'd considered a close head shot, but the god looked so much younger now than he had a year and a half ago. Also his hair was so much longer that there was no way to pass those off as pictures taken during the attack.

"I did wonder why he pulled some of the bone headed things he did during the attack," Tony told him, not even bothering to hide the smugness in his tone. "You may recall me mentioning it a time or two."

"Oh we recall it all right Stark, after all it was more like fifty or sixty times rather than a time or two. So it would be kind of hard to forget you saying it."

"Excellent. Well Nicky I don't want to keep you long, I'm sure you have little worker bees to terrorize. Tah ta,"

"Stark!"

"Yes?"

"You aren't to tell a soul about this, not even Potts. Until we have proof positive, As far as the world is concerned we have seen to the off planet incarceration of the mad man responsible for the New York attack. You got that?"

"Yeah, right. Hey Nicky, I'd love to chat longer but Pepper is calling me. Bye."

"Stark! Do. You. Understand?"

"Bye Nicky, give my best to Hill, tell her kisses from me and all that."

"Sta-"

Smiling happily, Tony hung up on Fury, popped his phone in his pocket and decided that was such fun he was going to spend the rest of the day only doing fun stuff. With the muscle screaming activities of yesterday and the vestiges of a hangover from this morning, there is no way he is going to be able to concentrate on anything that isn't fun.

So why bother trying?

OoooO

After returning to his cell the previous Wednesday the god had gone rigid and silent, which while not as entertaining as a temper tantrum did mean no additional bruises or contusions from his pet god slamming walls or anything. It also meant that Tony did not have to call Bruce to administer medical treatment… Which was good. Any day that Bruce wasn't sighing at him in disgust he would take as a gift… And him not having anything to mention to Pepper?

Bonus!

_OoooO_

Due to Pepper being out of town the last few weeks, he had time to work all the bugs out of his taser cuff plan. Because mitigating circumstances of the escaping kind or not, Tony still has orders from Pepper to produce on properly restrained god of mischief at dinner when she wants to see him.

Seeing as the god had done a runner, which was obviously a security problem that needed solved asap, Tony decided to incorporate a few more features and make it something the god would wear all the time. So he added fun stuff like satellite tracking rather than just his original tower Wi-Fi location feature, and a much more powerful transmitter, a battery with longer life, and special lock. You know all the stuff you have to think of when a too smart for his own god can escape a secure building using scraps of fucking paper.

Tony had sent the cuff down to Loki's floor and Jarvis had supervised the god putting it on and verified that the cuff was securely closed and circuits all showed that the lock was engaged and the links were secure.

"Jarvis, is the Minion link ready for this evening?" he asked while doing a bit of last minute tweaking to the auto-disaster protocols. After all he didn't want some sort of glitch taking out Minion and leaving Loki running around free.

"Yes sir, I have checked the link several times. Although I do feel that perhaps the fishbowl cartoon character is not perhaps the best interface you could have chosen for dealing with Mister Odinson." Jarvis said with more than a touch of censure.

Tony snickered to himself over that. Pepper being out of town for the last two weeks has given him additional time to pimp out the Minion bot and make quite a few cosmetic additions to the robot. Minion now looked like the bastard love child of Dummy and the Megamind cartoon character. Dummy's heavy base on the bottom, large enough to stuff tons of sensors and transmitters and battery backups coupled with a Minion-ish torso that boasted two flexible arms with hands delicate enough to do fine work, yet very strong in case of need. And since Tony never could resist a joke, he put the numerous video cameras in a fishbowl like head on top, and added a small screen inside that projected an animated the Minion fish, mimicking the movements of the limited, mostly canned speech protocols that Tony has programmed in.

And because Tony is a shit and will always be a shit, he also had a swimming, splashing, grinning screen saver-ish animation for when the robot was just sitting idle. Was it the best use of his genius man-hours to put those touches in?

_No._

Does Tony maybe feel he should lighten up a bit on the god since he might not be the only reason that his tower got damaged and he was thrown out a window to fall to his death.

_Maybe. _

But did it amuse the hell out of Tony to pimp out the Minion bot?

_Damn straight it did. _

Tony grinned. "Tough Jarvis, he's just going to have to deal. If I have to adapt the bot that you two already put into laundry service duty, without asking me I might add, so it can do sentry duty when Pep wants to see him, then he has to put up with my warped sense of humor."

"If you say so sir," replied Jarvis dubiously.

"I informed Mister Odinson that he was invited to dinner this evening and that he will be escorted by a bot. He is aware that I can trigger the cuff remotely if he threatens anyone in anyway. He is also aware that even if I am disabled you can remotely trigger it and even if you do not respond, he cannot get more than twenty yards from the bot without a warning tone. He also knows that the tone will change to an incremental verbal warning as he passes thirty yards with of course forty yards being the point where he will be 'tasered 'til he drools' as you put it so elegantly it."

"So he's good with the program?" Tony asked cheerfully, inwardly smiling at his AI's apparent disapproval.

"I would not say he is in love with it, but despite his distaste for the ankle cuff and a bot minder he does seems to be pleased with the idea of the upcoming social stimuli," Jarvis paused a moment, "although you would not know it to look at him."

"Of course not," Tony retorted. "Any other way and he would lose his prince of darkness title."

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes -** Chapter Five of Seven of your Christmas Pressie. Comments under the Mistletoe are always appreciated!

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	19. Chapter 19 - Dinner with the folks

**Chapter Summary**: Tony just wants to help. Not everyone appreciates that!

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

***** In need of a Beta Reader, one that can proof as well as critique plot would be wonderful. All my done ahead chapters were exhausted with the Christmas Gift Postings. I have other chapters that need Beta'd but don't want to overwhelm the wonderful Wildberries. If you can help, please email me m2143343668 hot mail . com (remove extra spaces)**

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**Chapter Six of Seven of your Christmas Pressie which I tried to publish several times today but the server was done. So this is not a my bad it is a server bad! **

Hope all who celebrate got something wonderful today... I got a 19" drawing pad for my computer... I predict my upload schedule may take a hit once my company leaves and I start playing with it.

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**Chapter 19– Dinner with the folks**

"Good evening Ms. Potts, I am so glad to see you again." Loki said in those soft liquid tones of his, standing when Pepper and Tony entered the living room.

"Nice outfit Blitzen where did that come from?"

Tony was surprised to see the god looking incredibly sharp, decked out in a pair of black slacks, black dress shoes, dark charcoal vest, white dress shirt with a dark green tie adorned with thin black and light grey stripes. Not expensive looking clothes or anything, but it apparently they didn't have to be expensive for the god to totally own it.

"Even though I was loathe to spend the funds Stark, the only other clothes I had were quite worn and of a casual plebian style," the god told him with a curled lip, "that I left me with no choice but to dip into my wages and ask Jarvis to order something slightly more appropriate." He smiled at Pepper, "After all, I could not be so discourteous as to accept an invitation to dine with a lady in unacceptable garb looking like a peasant freshly wandered in from the fields."

He did a very noticeable up and down look at Tony before turning his attention to Pepper.

_Ouch._

Smiling at Pepper, the god reached out his hand for hers as she came to a stop in front of him, "I would not insult Ms. Potts by not making every effort to make myself at least marginally presentable." He raised he hand to his lips, almost, but not quite brushing them to the back of her hand.

Honestly the guy was acting like he was at some kind of society function making nice with the queen. Although, they might just be his everynight dinner with mom manners since she was high society and a queen.

"Oh geeze, give it a break will ya Rock of Ages?" Said Tony rolling his eyes.

Almost as one Pepper and Loki turned to glance over towards Tony, taking in his messy hair, worn jeans, slightly shabby long jersey and scuffed up tennis shoes decorated with more than a few grease spots.

"What?" Tony shrugged, jamming both hands in his pockets. "We're not going anywhere; this is what I normally wear at home."

"No," corrected Pepper, glancing over at him. "You normally wear a regular band t-shirt."

"Yeah. Well. We'll talk about that later, 'kay." Tony said tugging the right sleeve of his shirt down and giving her a very pointed 'don't go there' look.

"It's a charming look indeed," Loki told Tony politely, still lightly holding Pepper's hand but taking half a step backwards and looking her over.

"What?" she asked almost amused, the corners of her lips twitching despite her efforts not to smile.

"Sorry, I was just looking to see where your control device was located." With a slightly quizzical look at her watch, he raised their joined hands slightly and asked, "A more refined version perhaps?"

Pulling her hand away and letting a small wry smile escape her, Pepper held up her wrist, looking at her watch. "No of course not, why would I have one?"

"Isn't that how Stark gets people to associate with him?" Loki asked mockingly, affecting a bemused tone and faux puzzled expression.

"No you asshole, I'm not worried that she might dash out the door and menace New York again, so she doesn't have to wear a shock collar, or shock cuff in your case."

Loki flashed him a wide toothy smile.

Tony groaned internally and could have kicked himself for letting that comment start the evening, especially since he knew the god had several times asked Jarvis where the tower was located.

"Do continue Stark."

"After you do have a habit of darting out open doors like an untrained puppy." He babbled hoping to distract Loki from his little slip. Which didn't work, he could tell by the tiny curling of the corners of the god's lips and the amused flash in his eyes.

Of course Loki had noticed Tony's little slip and the fact that Tony was aggravated about it. This was Loki, no matter how memory deprived he was, the guy wasn't stupid, far from it in fact.

_Damn, I knew this dinner thing was a bad idea. _

"Oh I am sorry Stark, I didn't mean to suggest that associating with you socially was so repellant that people had to be forced into your presence under the threat of pain."

"Really Rudolf? Lies already?" Tony asked, a little peeved that despite his recent apology for maybe being a bit rougher that necessary during their recent adventure, he was apparently still going to get lip all evening.

A totally his own idea apology unasked for or demanded by Pepper even. An almost unheard of his own idea even apology.

_There is no justice in this world, _he decided slippingan arm around Pepper's waist, and feeling her lean into him comfortingly.

"Not at all Stark, I had no intention of suggesting it at all, since I know it to be true. There was no lie in that statement." Loki gave him a small smirk before turning it in to a much kinder smile directed towards Pepper. "It would also not be a lie to say that I have been very much looking forward to seeing Ms. Potts again."

Pepper looked at him curiously and asked, "Why?" before gesturing everyone towards the dining table that one of her assistants had arranged shortly before Minion escorted Loki up to the penthouse.

"Well other than you are of course a feast for the eyes," Loki's smile widened at her slight start, "I was sure it would take a visit from you before anyone noticed that their prisoner was starving," Loki told her calmly, quickly stepping around the end of the table and pulling out her chair for her, just as Tony pulled started to pull his own out.

Ignoring the glower Tony directed his way; Loki helped a slightly flustered Pepper slide her chair in, before moving back towards the vacant chairs on the opposite side of the table and seating himself.

"He looked up at the still standing Tony, not allowing anything more than polite interest to show in his expression, "Are you not joining us Stark?"

Tony wondered irritably how it was that a Space Viking Alien Prisoner was out classing him in his own house. Hell, he'd seen Thor's taste in earth clothes and he certainly had marveled at Thor's table manners or lack thereof. So either Mister Smoothie was a Space Viking exception or Thor was not the best representative of Asgardian culture.

But there was still no doubt in Tony's mind that Loki was a world class prick.

After Tony had settled, Pepper took the lids off of the various dishes, and wordlessly invited them both to serve themselves. "Please, there is plenty," she told Loki after he had taken a modest portion of salad. "What type of dressing do you like?" She asked, gesturing to a quartet of small dressing pitchers on the side of the table.

"Ah… I'm not sure what it's called," Loki told her with a slight frown, ignoring Tony's huff. "It is white, creamy; I am not fond of the oil based one."

"Jarvis, Blue Cheese, Ranch or Caesar?" Tony asked impatiently, peeking at the contents of the dressings available.

"Of the white dressings, Mister Odinson appears to prefer the Ranch sir. I will make a note not to order the Italian dressing in the future."

"Here ya go Gandalf," Tony said handing the ranch dressing over to the god. He caught Loki's eye, "You know, if there's something you don't like to eat, you can just tell Jarvis so he doesn't order it for you anymore."

Loki looked at him steadily for a moment before taking the pitcher. "It is not for me to make demands of my captors Stark."

_Bullshit_, Tony thought.

"Ya know, somehow I get the idea that you normally are not reluctant to make your preferences known. Unless you are trying to get me into trouble that is." Tony said shrewdly. The look of amusement that flickered in Loki's eyes told Tony he was right.

"You are trying to get me into trouble aren't you?"

"Well Stark, I was certainly surprised that my allotment of food increased. I was sure it would take a visit from Ms. Potts for that to happen."

He stared intently at Tony for a moment before cocking his head slightly, "You weren't the one who noticed were you Stark?" Loki glanced over at Pepper then his eyes flicked back to Tony.

"It wasn't you? Was it?" he asked Tony, although he seemed to already know the answer.

"What are you talking about," Tony scoffed, abandoning his hardly touched rabbit food for some only marginally more acceptable linguine with marinara sauce, seriously Marinara? If he was eating pasta it should have a full rich meat sauce at least, not this thin nasty stuff. But hey, at least the veal had thick layer of cheese on it.

"Of course it was me." He said looking up at the god.

"Please Stark, don't even try to lie to me, you are as transparent as a child with cookie crumbs down their tunic." Loki turned to Pepper, "Was it you or Jarvis?" he asked.

"Jarvis," she said smiling. "He's very good."

"I will take you word for that, which is more than I will do for your other answer. Thank you for noticing." Loki said handing her his empty plate when she motioned for it. "It was becoming quite uncomfortable."

"You know Loki, you can just tell when something is wrong," Pepper said calmly loading the plate high with pasta and several servings of veal and then handing it back to him. "Tony pass Loki the rolls and butter."

Tony plonked the basket down in front of the god and pushed a tray of butter pats his way towards the ex-god of mischief.

"Ms. Potts, it is not my responsibility to administer the contract that Stark has signed with my mother. If he is not smart enough to find them, I refuse point out his violations to him."

"Pep, I'm telling you, he wants to get me in trouble. But you're shit out of luck bud, 'cause I'm all on top of it now." Tony said with a smirk. Not that Tony wasn't pissed at the 'Gotcha' game that Loki played to the extent of allowing himself to go hungry for months at a time attempt to win. But, you almost had to admire a guy who was that willing to suffer like that to take someone else down.

Almost.

Or at least Tony would if it wasn't him that was losing the damn game. "But I'm on to you now, so there won't be any more violations," He concluded.

"Well I did try," the god chuckled and Tony had the distinct feeling that he joke was still on him.

"Jarvis! What the hell are we currently doing that violates the contract?" Tony demanded, exchanging a glance with Pepper, who pulled at her lower lip in concentration while he mentally ran through the contract provisions, groaning as the realization hit him at the same time Jarvis spoke.

"Mister Odinson is supposed to be provided with reading and writing material sir," Jarvis said apologetically. "You did confiscate all of the paper and writing implements in his room after that incident two days ago. So technically you are currently in violation of the terms."

_Fuck._

"So… Stark… When am I getting my books and journals back?" Loki asked watching him with a sharp gleam in his green eyes.

"Tony what did you do?" Pepper asked sharply.

"Oh no. Don't look at me like that. I had to Pep, he was writing magic do-hickies on scraps of paper and used them to get outside."

"What?" Pepper's voice was just shy of shrill as she glared from Tony to Loki and back again.

"Like out of the building escaped? Outside? Tony I thought you just meant he got off his floor."

Setting down the fork he had been holding Loki looked at her, "Stark attacked me."

"I surprised you," Tony snapped, stung by the injustice of the claim and the way Pepper narrowed he eyes at him.

Shaking her head Pepper closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "It doesn't matter now. We are moving on."

Opening her eyes and looking briefly towards heaven for strength she continued sharply, "So you took the stuff he used to write with then. Fine, I got that. But why did you take the books and his personal notes?"

"Hello!" Tony huffed. "Pepper, he escaped. Outside even. That so totally shouldn't have been possible, "Tony was annoyed that she didn't see the connection.

"Honestly Pep, Books are made of Paper," which didn't seem to be an answer Pepper was prepared to accept. "Come on. Paper, which he could have torn out scraps from the margins and wrote his magic crap with a fork tine and beef gravy or ketchup or I don't know… Anything!"

_And I am just not that stupid to let you try it again you asshole_, Tony growled internally as the trickster smirked at him.

Even days later Tony was feelingslightly panicked at how close the god had come to slipping through all of his security with a few scraps of paper and a pen. He could have gone anywhere; or on a different day he could have made it up to the penthouse and attacked him or Pepper. He might not have his godly strength, but the bastard obviously knew how to fight. Lord knew he could probably kick Tony's un-suited ass from here to Sunday.

Loki's attack hadn't injured him through the suit's armor of course, but he had still felt the damn mule kick. Tony would have hated to think how injured he would have been if he hadn't been wearing the suit.

And besides, Tony told himself sulkily, whack god may or may not have been totally responsible for New York, but fuck knows whatever he had done on Asgard had to be pretty bad or they wouldn't have shook his etch-a-sketch and stuck him in solitary on another realm.

"Tony…" Pepper drawled his name warningly. "There are provisions that have to be adhered to."

Yes there were he thought mulishly. And Tony certainly wasn't taking the flak for letting the god slip his punishment. He was pretty sure the Space Viking King would want more than a monetary penalty for losing track of the trickster.

"Hey, I'm allowed to reduce his privileges if he doesn't behave," he told her, calling her stubborn and raising it a pissed.

Tony looked pained for a moment, knowing Pepper was going to rip him a new one if he didn't come up with something quick that she would accept.

_Oh. That could work._

Glaring at tall, dark and bat shit Tony said, "Consider your books and notes confiscated as a penalty for your escape attempt."

"Which you caused by attacking me," Loki retorted sharply.

"Nope, sorry. You panicked when I appeared unexpectedly."

They both glared at each other for a few moments. But after a warning growl from Pepper they both looked away. Tony up to the ceiling as if seeking some of that divine wisdom Pepper had been looking for eariler, Loki down at his plate to wrestle with the lightly sauced fettuccine noodles like he has seen Pepper and Tony do.

"Aren't you afraid that with nothing to occupy my time, I might decide to come up with another escape plan in desperation?" Loki asked almost disinterestedly, lifting the fork to his mouth.

Tony smirked, "Nope," he said, watching Loki chew for a moment.

Swallowing Loki regarded him steadily before speaking.

"Then obviously you don't know anything about me Stark," Loki said calmly, taking a roll and buttering it.

A strained silence covered the table, after a few minutes the god quit tearing bites of butter bread from the roll and put it down on the edge of plate.

"Ah," Loki looked down at the table thoughtful for a moment sliding a side long glance at Pepper before he raised his chin and regarded Tony, "So. Stark... Exactly how long do you intend to keep me in solitary confinement without anything to occupy my time?"

"I'll let you know you know in a few days what I decide." Tony shrugged, "In the mean time I'll see about maybe throwing a luncheon or two to give you some extra laundry to keep you busy."

"You are of course the epitome of kindness Stark," Loki said turning in his chair a bit so that he could look at Pepper without really seeing Tony.

"And how is your assistant doing these days Ms. Potts, the one who lent me the books?"

Tony listened for a few minutes as the god of snark made nice with Pepper, talking about her assistants in general and the one that had lent him to beginning reader books in particular. Sending his many thanks to her, blah, blah blah.

Then they started discussing a book that he had read that had been one that Pepper had donated to his pile. Some sort of bestselling fiction that Tony would have never guessed an insane killer would have found interesting. When Loki asked her if she had read a book that he had acquired from the lost and found pile that Jarvis had borrowed for him Tony kind of tuned them out. While Pepper didn't have a lot of time to read, she did go in spurts while traveling when she was tired of going over documents or when really stressed she liked to take long soaking baths and read.

Tony was pondering how he was going to fulfill the contract without giving jerk god any paper or writing implements or more importantly shifting any cost to his account since he flat didn't want to go through another boring budget meeting with the guy. It was fricking bad enough when he had to do it for his own company and there were millions of dollars on the line. He just flat wasn't going to go there with Loki over a couple of thousand.

He was roughing out some final plans that should work without incurring the wrath of the god of accountants when he noticed that they weren't talking anymore. He looked up to see two pairs of eyes looking at him expectantly.

"What?"

"I had asked if there was any type of book you enjoyed Stark? Everything Jarvis borrowed from your library seemed to be scientific; all the leisure reading had belonged to your mother according to the book plates inside of them."

"Why?"

"Why?" Loki's brows furled a bit.

"Yeah," Tony said. "Why are you interested? What do you care?"

"Ah," Loki gave him a little half smile. "Politeness Stark. While I am of course immensely enjoying talking about books to Ms. Potts, I do realize not everyone cares to converse on this subject. After all you are my host, so it would be rude and insulting to converse on something that excludes you completely. Therefore, if this is not a topic you care to converse on, I will have to find another topic that you can take part in."

"Seriously Rudolf?"

"Yes of course," He gave a small chuckle at the incredulous look that Tony was tossing is way. "I am a prince you know, Unlike some," he raised a brow and ran his eyes mockingly over Tony, "I was taught proper manners."

'Yeah. Right." Tony retorted skeptically. "Princely social manners, like Thor? Cause let me tell you, I've seen the guy eat. His table manners could use some work and don't get me started on how he will drone on for hours about this quest or that quest."

Loki smiled at him.

The guy had a beautiful smile. Oh he had smiled before, but when you took out the snark and the bitterness, he really had a great smile.

"Let us just say Stark, that while Thor is a prince and has been schooled in the social graces since he was running around in soft shoes, some of his lessons did not exactly stick and in fact are ongoing."

"He might not live long enough," Tony laughed, thinking about Thor and his boisterous behavior when more than three people were sitting at the table with him.

"Oh?" Loki hummed, clearly inviting expansion on Tony's last statement.

"Not gonna happen Blitzen." Tony snapped, his tone not in the least softening his last statement and earning himself an ankle kick from Pepper.

"Indeed. Well Stark, I just want you to know, I will find out what happened." Loki told him with an ugly look in his eyes that was totally at odds with the warm smile on his face.

"Oh really," Tony retorted flippantly, "and how do you think that is going to happen?"

"I haven't quite figured that out yet, but I am quite resourceful, so it will happen." Loki said in a polite distant voice, his expression smoothed to a blank mask. "I just feel it fair to warn you in case for some reason you would have reason to fear me learning these things." There was no threat in his voice per say, but Tony did feel a little shiver run up his spine, but he shrugged it off.

"Well hell, you know Loki that pretty sporting of you to warn me." Tony cocked a cynical brow at him. "To be honest I didn't expect you to Rudolf, but hey, I appreciate the warning."

Loki dipped his head in an 'of course your welcome', kind of motion and glanced over towards a bemused Pepper before again regarding Tony. "Think nothing of it. The barest of courtesies I assure you. However," He nodded at Pepper, "I will promise you though not to harm Ms. Potts no matter what I have to do to achieve my freedom."

Tony choked and grabbed frantically at his drink, coughing as a bite of veal parmesan attempted to kill him. If he didn't know any better he would say the bastard had timed it so he would be chewing when he said that.

"Loki," Pepper chided warningly.

"What?" Tony gasped waving off a worried back pat from Pepper, eyes watering just a bit he glared at Loki.

"Ms. Potts, she has been very generous in her assistance to me, even though she doesn't like me, so I will see that no harm comes to her from my hands. I do owe her that."

"Real sporting…" Tony coughed, "of you there Lokes."

"Loki, I don't dislike you," Pepper said, lying through her teeth as far as Tony could figure.

And hey he wasn't wrong since their resident expert seemed to agree with him.

"Please Ms. Potts, I may not know why I am here, but I assure you I can still tell when someone is lying to me." The god told her, setting his silverware across his plate and leaning back to regard her.

"Yeah right," Tony huffed with an exaggerated eye roll.

"Would you like me to prove it to you Stark?" Loki's eyes widened inquiringly.

Pepper stood, "Let's go into the living room. Do either of you want coffee?" she asked motioning them out of the dining area.

"Yeah, yeah I would." Tony said. "To both questions actually. Coffee please Pepper and a chance to confound you," he told Loki.

They reentered the living room, complete with minion bot standing in the corner making the occasional soft splash noise as its screen saver ran.

"Easily done Stark," Loki said resettling himself in a different armchair from two nights ago. "Tell me ten things, three of them lies and I will tell you which three are lies."

Tony's face scrunched up. "Yeah, and we'll know this how? I mean seriously, how will you know I tell you three lies? What if everything I tell you, no matter how farfetched is the truth?" He sat on the end of one of the tan leather sofas reaching up to get his coffee mug from Pepper.

"Are you saying you would cheat?"

Would he cheat? Tony Stark cheat? Well, if it meant not losing to the tall asshole sitting in front of him… maybe? Tony doesn't normally cheat, but he doesn't like to lose either.

So… Maybe?

"Wait I have a better idea," Pepper said as she folded her legs beneath her on the couch beside Tony. "Direct competition might not be a good idea for you two right now…" Tony rolled an eye over her way not bothering to hide the smirk playing on his lips.

"After all, you two have a history together, so perhaps something of a more neutral nature would work better."

Loki's eyes opened slightly, "Really?" he purred, lights of unholy glee dancing in his eyes as he deliberately studied Tony, before drawling, "Well all things are possible I suppose. And I have been known in the past to be rather adventurous…

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**End Notes -** Chapter Six of Seven of your Christmas Pressie.

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	20. Chapter 20 - You cannot tell a lie

**Chapter Summary**: Pepper gets some help and Loki is credited with the assist.

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*** In need of a Beta Reader, one that can proof as well as critique plot would be wonderful. All my done ahead chapters were exhausted with the Christmas Gift Postings. I have other chapters that need Beta'd but don't want to overwhelm the wonderful Wildberries. If you can help, please email me m2143343668 hot mail . com (remove extra spaces)

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After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. 120,000 words so far

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**Chapter 20 – You cannot tell a lie **

Tony's smirk morphed into a look of mild horror as Loki contemplated the suggestion that they had a past history, with the totally unjustified emphasis on sexual history he supposed.

"Well all things are possible I suppose," Loki told Pepper. "And I have been known in the past to be rather adventurous… And this would surely classify as the far side of that," he said, assuming a vaguely horrified look waving a hand towards Tony. "I must assume this was before you and he became a couple?"

"What? Oh no you didn't." Tony stuttered.

"Well it obviously was not during," the god said firmly. "I don't share. Not at all, so since you aren't dead, it would have had to be beforehand."

Tony could feel the warmth rising up the back of his neck. He knew it was only going to be a few seconds before he was as red as a one of his suits. "Bastard," he muttered in a low but still meant to be heard voice."

"Oh no Stark, that I can assure you I am not."

"Loki that is not what I meant and you know it," Pepper gasped trying, almost successfully to smother a laugh.

"No? Well then what did you mean?" he riposted quickly giving her a 'Yes please do explain' look.

"I meant…"

Even as Tony opened his mouth to shout at her, she stopped, mouth open, brows knitting in confusion, a puzzled, slightly pained look on her face as she stared at Loki. Tony watched as she cleared her throat, "What I mean is…"

Loki's chin lifted and he studied her, a hard look on his face flashing across his face for the briefest of moments. "A geas perhaps?"

Peppers mouth worked without sound before she merely widened her eyes in agreement. "Well never mind that now," Pepper interjected hurriedly finding words that could be released, while Tony just shot him a sharp look. He did notice the god angrily tucking this tid-bit of info away to mull over later.

Tony hated fucking magic, give him science with rules he could understand, this mumbo-jumbo stuff just got on his last nerve.

Pepper waved her hand, "Anyhow, We did some quick final interviews last week for our next batch of summer interns, and as per usual we found two of them that made it to the finalist stage lied during the interview." She laughed ruefully, "Like Stark International wasn't going to double check everything they told us. Anyhow Jarvis has the videos of the interviews; you watch them and tell me which two. Fair enough?

"What the hell Pep," Tony grumbled.

"Hush, Tony, I was going to watch them later anyhow, I need to decide which one will be working with me."

So Tony drank his coffee as his fiancé and his pain in the ass 'guest' watched young hopefuls interview for a coveted internship with Stark International, with the cherry on top going to the one Pepper picked for her own. And damned if the stupid fucker didn't peg the two that it took a second back ground check to catch in a lie. But he also told Pepper to check one of the guys out more.

"He didn't lie," Loki told her, "As he said, he very much wants to work here for the advantage it will give him when he graduates, but that is not all the full reason. I can't say for sure, but if I had been asking him questions I would have made sure to ask him more, there is a conflict of some sort."

"Conflict of interest?" Pepper asked.

"Yes, that is a good way to put it. It may be nothing, but based on his answers I definitely would have asked more questions in this area."

"Jarvis?"

"Shall I send an email from you to security and ask them to look into this, or would you like me to check on it for you?" Jarvis asked.

"You please, if you can't find anything in a quick check, then send it to them. Although I doubt they will find anything if you can't," Pepper said smiling at one of Jarvis cameras.

Loki and Pepper discussed the other candidates and he recommended that she personally take another look at the weakest of the ten interviewees, assuring Pepper that while she was uncertain of her strengths, she had been the most open of all of them combined. He then ranked the rest of them in order of perceived trustworthiness.

"Ms. Potts?"

"Yes Jarvis?"

"I am not finished with my check yet, but my preliminary search found that the young man in question has a long standing friendship with the daughter of a Hammer Industries Executive."

"Really? How do you do that?" Pepper demanded laughingly at Loki. "It's amazing…"

"It's a learned skill, I could teach you if you like. I do owe you for your kindnesses, getting me medicine when I was so ill, getting me enough food to eat. It takes time of course to make it automatic, but there are many indicators if you know what to look for."

"I doubt if I have time, but I may just have Jarvis pipe you the vids next time someone is being interviewed we're not sure about."

"Oh right," scoffed Tony, "let's have the guy in locked up in cell block 'C' checking out our new hires."

_Seriously Pep? Seriously?_

Tony may have to revise his opinion of the god's first visit to New York, but he had spent enough time with him to know that he was, in Tony's professional opinion, still a world class jerk.

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"You know, not that I don't appreciate you being so helpful to my CEO, but you could try that approach with me once in a while, you might like it," Tony said pocketing the phone he had been using to play a few rounds of 'Questioneering' while they had been watching the interviews. And of course he had totally aced them of course since he was an engineer's engineer.

"Stark I fail to see where my advantage lies in being 'nice' to you." Loki smirked, settling back in his chair, legs wide and hands comfortable laced across his midsection. The god looked like his aborted escape attempt had never happened. He was every bit at ease as if Tony was a guest in his house, rather than the other way around.

Fucker.

"Well smart ass," Tony retorted, not really trying to taunt him 'cause he was trying to be understanding and all that crap, but perhaps doing it just a little 'cause the bastard still totally deserved it. "Maybe you would have gotten better meals sooner if you had tried it. I'm just saying."

"Ah, so you were withholding adequate food as a strategy? My apologies Stark, here I was thinking you were just a clueless unobservant oaf. How short sighted of _me_ not to realize it was actually part of your brilliant scheme to starve me into cooperation." Tony could hear smug condescension radiating off of every word the god spoke.

"Quite the clever plan indeed," Loki purred. "I am truly sorry I doubted your planning abilities."

"Tony!" Pepper snapped irritable, looking up from the notes she was tapping on her phone.

"Calmly Ms. Potts, calmly. After all it was quite a good plan was it not?" Loki asked with mocking encouragement lacing his voice, a small smile tugging the corners of his lips.

"What?" Tony put his coffee down rolling a wary eye towards Pepper, "No. It wasn't that way at all!"

"Oh. So you were simply clueless? Well not exactly a surprise, but still not very bright of you to admit it…" he trailed off with a wicked grin watching Pepper smack the engineer on his arm.

"Oh like you would have done better?" Tony snorted.

"Oh course I would have you dull creature." Loki snapped, his urbane affability disappearing for the briefest of moments before he gathered it back with a flicker of irritation at his slip.

"If nothing else, even without my magic I am still a strategist and I know more than a little about diplomacy."

Not that the god was being condescending mind you.

Well yeah. Yeah he was, thought Tony irritably, and it is pissing me straight off.

"Oh yeah, diplomacy, there's a useful topic to know," he retorted with a dismissive snort.

Tony ignored Pepper's annoyed huff.

"Stark, diplomacy is the art of getting what you want. That seems to be your main complaint right now isn't? That you have not been getting what you want or indeed what you need from me. Is this not the case?"

"Yes, he complains about it constantly, frankly I'm tired of hearing about it." Pepper chimed in when Tony wouldn't answer, smoothing down her black pencil skirt with abrupt little pats before laying her phone on her lap.

Stung by Pepper's comment Tony sneered at the god, "Well smart ass how would you have gotten a smug stuck up git that only says a few words a month to you because he's a whining brat who can't accept the fact that I can't tell him what he wants to know… How would you get that bastard to talk to you?

"Ah, an interesting problem, first I would make sure not to impugn the moral character of his mother by insinuating that she was less than faithful before he was conceived." Loki barred his teeth and widened his eyes just a bit while staring at Tony for a few moments, before assuming a thoughtful look.

"Hummm…," laying his ankle across his knee he regarded Tony. "Second, I would get my opponent into a position, where talking to me about anything was even an option. After all I can't expect a fish to swim if I don't give him access to water can I?"

"Fish now, how is this useful, the guy is talking about aquariums," he appealed to Pepper who waved him off irritably.

"Can it Tony and listen, you might learn something that isn't engineering."

Was Pepper siding with Loki? How is this even possible he wondered? Did she forget the bastard threw me out a window? Okay so maybe he was wearing Teseract contacts, but those didn't mean he had to aim for a window…

"Now, now Ms. Potts. In Stark's defense it isn't always necessary to use strategy to get conditions set for a diplomatic solution."

"See Pepper." Tony said making a face at her.

"So far his main skill set seems to be that ever popular, 'this didn't work the first time let's try it again' method, a very common approach for the less intelligent set. I however am not personally a fan of using that approach since it either hardens your opponent's opposition or takes so long that the prize is worthless by the time you obtain it."

"Oh really?" Tony huffed and glared at the god, while Loki just smiled.

"Yes, really." Loki lifted one hand apparently suddenly concerned about the state of his finger nails. "And how is Doctor Foster doing these days Stark? Still laboring away at her problem? Ah well, from her writing she seems like a very intelligent mortal I'm sure she'll get there in the end."

_Okay, now the bastard was just getting on his nerves. _

"I'll have you know I'm a genius."

"Really?" Loki affected a puzzled mien.

"Strange. I would think that a genius would have figured this out all ready. But apparently your definition of a genius is greatly different from mine."

"Yeah, well," Tony snarked with a nasty twitch of his lips. However, my genius still works. Sucks about your bibbity boppity boo not working anymore."

Tony saw a flash of something insane before those green eyes narrowed. Well yes, that seemed to get through, But he thought he saw something else too, before Loki returned to inspecting his fingernails, those green eyes now had a suspicious shine that hadn't been there a moment ago.

"Ah, so you can duplicate my non-magical feat of the other day then? I'm impressed Stark, I didn't realize you were that talented." Loki drawled staring hard at him.

"Fuck you," Tony said a little heatedly, without acknowledging that it had been a well-placed back stroke. And how in the hell did the god figure that his scribble papers weren't a form of magic?

"Oh yes, cursing… another refuge of the feeble minded." Loki smirked as they continued to volley visual and verbal daggers at each other.

"Hey I'm not the one who's spent the last year-"

"Tony! Loki!"

"Stop it both of you," Pepper admonished them sharply.

"Pep-" Tony stopped when her eyes flashed warningly. She turned to the god lounging in the chair beside her.

"Loki, would you be so kind as to explain what you would have done in this situation?"

"Well now," the god of mischief's face lit up with a malicious smirk, "that would be telling would it not?"

"You know you want to," Pepper countered.

"Well yes, there is that."

Loki sat up very straight regarding Pepper closely with a wide smile, "But I'm not really sure Stark deserves any of my insights."

Pepper opened her mouth, but before she could retort, he did a modified eye roll and sighed in an overly dramatic fashion.

"However Stark is my host, however unwillingly this evening. So perhaps a recap of his missed opportunities would be a proper guest offering, since I don't have access to get anything else."

Loki's eyes narrowed a moment in tought, before his face slid into a bland mask which he turned to Tony. "Stark, the most basic lesson of diplomatic leverage is that small favors given early are worth far more than big favors given later."

"And how exactly does that have anything to do with me?" Tony asked irritated that space punk thought he didn't know that, hell he was a businessman after all. And as loathe as he was to admit his mistakes to others, he knew that was rule number one… but it switched places a lot with rule two since they were equally important. Rule two being don't piss off your suppliers, especially if they had a monopoly… on their product...

_Fuck._

_Loki had a monopoly on Rainbow Bridge information. How in the hell do I keep forgetting that? Probably because I can't stand the tall bastard, but still._

Well of course there was Jane Foster… but still, it's not like she seemed to be making any real new progress or anything. Of course, normally when Tony's suppliers gave him grief he just bought their stock out from under them… not something he could do here.

_Double Fuck. _

"Had you made small overtures when I was in need of them with what information you could give me about why I was here, perhaps finding a way to let me know about the Geas to explain what you could not tell me and why, we might have come to an understanding. Baring that just general information about where I was or an activity however small to give me something else to think about would have helped. Either of those things, one of which was required by contract but withheld, but anything at all before you started badgering me for information would have gotten you more answers for less. Now however we have a different history. One that involves you harassing me for information that you obviously can't figure out on your own given the time you have been looking for it."

Then the bastard just unfolded gracefully from the low chair he had been sitting in and stood up. Tony tensed and scrambled to his feet also, but the godling just stood there quietly and clasped his hand behind his back.

"Sadly for you Stark, I am afraid that now, it will take quite a bit for you to even get the smallest scraps of information." He turned and looked at Pepper, "I thank you for your invitation this evening, but I think I would like to get in an exercise period before I retire for the night, if that is permissible?"

"Fuck the rainbow bridge; just identify some metal for me okay? I would be as ecstatic with joy if you just did that?"

And of course Loki ignored him and just stood there waiting.

"No thank you for being such a good dinner guest." Pepper said smiling at him as she stood up next to Tony. "And thank you for the insights into my interviewees, maybe I send you a few more to look at someday. Anyhow, in thanks I'm going to have Jarvis pipe you down a movie every day."

What the hell? Tony thought wrathfully. "Hey! Leverage Pepper, Leverage!"

"Hey!" Pepper said mockingly looking over at him, "Tony you two need something you two can talk about during next week's dinner, since you don't do books and your fish" She grinned at Loki, "needs water to swim in… conversationally that is."

"Hell… do you even know what movies are Gandalf?" Tony asked grumpily.

"Of course I know what they are Stark."

What do you know? Gods not only do eye rolls, they have some pretty elaborate ones at that, thought Tony distracted. Who knew?

"They are pre-recorded entertainment of a longer length that a television show, usually telling a fictional story, almost always worse than the book it was based on," the god said in a tone that indicated that of course nothing was better than a book.

"These movies would be free?" the god asked his eyes flicking towards Tony with a sly smile.

"God almighty Pepper," Tony groaned, "He's like that freakin' Darisen down in accounting. Nothing, I mean nothing is allowed on his expense sheet without him questioning it."

"Yes," Pepper laughed. "One movie a day will be free."

"But I get to pick 'em!" Tony declared in a gleeful tone.

Loki's mouth turned down in distaste.

"No Tony, but you can pick the one Thursday evening as long as it has an audience score of at least seventy percent on the Rotten Tomatoes site."

"Hey. I can work with that." Tony replied, starting to mentally list his favorite horrible movies with high scores. Then Pepper went ahead and burst his bubble.

"And you and I can watch it too up here, that way we'll all be familiar with at least one of the movies Loki is watching." Pepper widened her eyes and smiled at Tony, knowing she had just busted him.

She was such a bitch sometimes. Which is possibly why I love her, he mused.

"Okay, whatever," Tony grumped while Loki and Minion headed towards the elevator. But hey, at least he'll get to see what the god likes and with any luck maybe he'll like a movie based on a TV show…

Tony wondered how much information he'd get from Loki in exchange for a television and full cable package.

Pepper was calling out her good nights as the elevator opened when it hit him; Pepper got information from the god this evening. Maybe not the information Tony was looking for, but it was a start. And… since they were now adding water to Loki's goldfish bowl, perhaps he _could _think of a few things, like a treasure chest with bubbles or a few arches of seaweed or something to temp the god with and trot them out at dinner time in the upcoming weeks while Pepper was there to help him make the deal.

"Oh my god Pepper, you are too good." Tony gasped. As the elevator began to descend he snagged her around the waist and dropped them both on to the couch. The only thing hotter than a strawberry blonde in his opinion was said blonde being smarter than hell.

"I so totally know how I am going to work the book, notebook thing with him now." Tony turned her so she laid spread out on top of him. He kissed her. "Total genius," Tony started raining little kisses all over her face, "And you're pretty smart yourself." Ignoring Pepper's dismissive huff he nuzzled her. "And so sneaky like, I just love that about you."

"Oh you do? Do you?"

"Oh yes," Tony moved her shirt collar out of the way with his nose so he could place a small bites on her collar bone.

"But," He pulled back to give her a sharp look. "There is one thing sexier than a long legged sneaky woman."

Pepper laughed, touching her forehead to him and looking into his eyes.

"And what exactly would that be?"

Tony reached up and licked her lips. "For those long legs to be wrapped around me," He breathed.

Pepper settled herself over him, allowing her skirt to ride up to her hips and wiggling until her long legs were flanking him, "Like this?" She teased.

"It's a start." Tony told her pulling her hips down tight.

OoooO

What to do with a paper-less Loki? Oh Tony had known he was going to have to give the god back his books and his journals. He had certain latitude to arrange things by contract, but permanently withholding those items was specifically not allowed. Apparently Loki momma was worried what trouble her little boy would get into if he didn't have any distractions. And since Frigga did know him better than Tony did, he decided to yield to her expertise.

But nowhere in the contract did it say Tony had to give him the physical books back. Since they were only borrowed books anyway, he had Jarvis return them to his library, the lost and found or wherever else they had originally come from. Tony then spent a few afternoons installing projectors and sensors while Loki was working, locked up in the laundry room. When Tony was done Jarvis was could pop up several display screens for Loki to use, within strict limitations of course.

So Loki got his books back in ePub format to use on virtual displays that Jarvis controlled. And best of all, the entire set up was done in the time it took Loki to do a few days' worth of lab coats and get Tony's towels all nice and fluffy. And to keep Mister Cheapskate appeased, Tony decided to run up a few modifications he had been thinking of to bring the cost of the projector setup down enough to think about releasing it for sale. Loki got his set up free and Tony had a beta tester whose usage was subject to instant and constant review.

Since Jarvis had noted that he god frequently covered his whole work table with books opened to different pages, Tony decided to go with multiple screens. Hell otherwise he would have just epoxied an e-reader shut and tossed to the god. He did have to epoxy a drawing pad shut so Loki could write his notes in those stupid pictogram rune things he uses, since there was no way that Loki is getting anything but scans of his notebooks back.

Notebooks that Tony still couldn't decode, it was like the bastard was switching languages on him every other line or something. But he did scan the damn things into a file and glue shut a wireless keyboard. Tony was crossing his fingers that the speed and ease of using a standard keyboard might entice the god to use English or something that is not space alien script for his notes.

So the bastard got his books and notes back and Tony was back in compliance, take that space alien contracts.

So everything was kicking right along and then Pepper bless her heart, decided to introduce the mischief maker to the internet one evening at dinner. One time was all it took for Loki to be ready to deal for internet access. And this time Tony was a bit more careful in what he asked for.

"So this is the deal Reindeer Games, in exchange for internet access you agree to identify and tell me all the properties you know about or have heard about with three different materials. This includes any information that you have on how to work the material, possible dangers of the material, components of the material, safe handling of the material and its components, uses of the material, origin of and properties of the material."

Tony of course would have liked to get information about the Rainbow/Einstein-Rosen Bridge of course, but the god wasn't budging on that one. They had argued back and forth over that for two weeks until finally Pepper dragged Tony aside and told him to pick something else since the important thing right now was to get Loki to make any kind of a deal at all.

Of course since Loki was not dealing for the Einstein-Rosen Bridge he was getting only incoming internet and anything blocked that pertained to him or the topics restricted by the contract… Although in all honestly Tony would not have given the god outgoing internet access for anything… He shuddered to think what would happen if the god of mischief got a Facebook, twitter or tumblr account, who knew what catastrophes he could cause. No for right now whack god would just have to settle for incoming Google searches and the like. And if the god spent a bunch of his salary on buying eBooks from Amazon, rather than keeping his mother's account topped off so Tony couldn't order more material… Well Tony certainly wouldn't have a problem with that. All his godly worries were solved.

"Sir, Director Fury and seven S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are in the lobby. Several of the agents are quite heavily armed. Director Fury seems very upset wants to speak to you immediately."

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**End Notes - **Chapter Seven of Seven of your Christmas Pressies. After holiday comments, even the ones that are marked half off are always appreciated.

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As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	21. Chapter 21 - Ways to Cope

**Chapter Summary**: Tony finds ways to cope that don't all involve liquor. That counts as growth right?

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

*** In need of a Beta Reader, one that can proof as well as critique plot would be wonderful. All my done ahead chapters were exhausted with the Christmas Gift Postings. I have other chapters that need Beta'd but don't want to overwhelm the wonderful Wildberries. If you can help, please email me m2143343668 hot mail . com (remove extra spaces)

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After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest. 133,000 words so far. This will be posted in two parts.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 21 – Ways to Cope**

While Stark had provided electronic copies of all of the books Loki had previously had access to, he was not providing him with any new books. Stark was still upset that Loki had been able to contribute to his own expenses, meaning the money in his mother's account would last longer and therefore Stark would have to wait longer before he could request more 'alien' material from Frigga.

The mortal seemed to be determined to do anything he could to reduce the amount that Loki contributed to that fund. So much so that that Jarvis was allowed to order Loki anything he wanted from the internet so long as it was not dangerous or violated any of the safety protocols Stark had put into place. That last phrase however pretty much eliminating any and all art supplies of course much to Loki's disgust.

Jarvis deciding that clay was a prohibited item was just such an art supply frustration for the god. Doubtless he worried that Loki might carve runes in the wet clay. A possibility of course, but not at all what Loki wanted the clay for. He had been thinking more along the lines of a harmless looking sculpture that he could have used as a spirit trap for Stark. Nothing too elaborate, just something that he could have occasionally whispered ideas to. And if luck was with him, perhaps he could have come across a strand of hair of the man's hair someday to give it a little more push on Stark's thoughts. But sadly that idea was for naught due to Jarvis was being so stubborn.

Although, he did have to admit that in other ways Jarvis had become more than helpful with anything that would keep Loki busy without violating any of the rules Stark had laid down. It had taken him a while to realize that Jarvis would not get upset with him for asking for something repeatedly. This frankly amazed Loki, since he had several times argued just to see what it would take to make the spirit angry.

Granted bound spirits did not react the way the truly alive did, but even so Jarvis was more even tempered than any Loki had ever encountered. He had looked up the meaning of the term Artificial Intelligence, which is what Jarvis and Stark claimed he was, but Loki was not convinced that this was _all_ that Jarvis was. While this was most unusual, it did mean that even if his temperament was artificial Jarvis' operating parameters were fluid and Loki was free to tweak the nature of his request until he found the borders of his restraints.

Loki smiled to himself, he found that to be very helpful indeed.

Jarvis still very much wanted him to provide Stark with certain information, but he did not for some reason hold it against Loki when he didn't. In fact on more than one occasion when Loki had questioned him on this he was told that, 'Sir needed a good puzzle' every now and then to keep him occupied. While that was an odd sentiment in many ways, Loki was not about to complain since rebounded to his benefit.

Per his agreement with Stark and Ms. Potts concerning his writing being done and stored electronically, Anything that Loki wrote was private unless he decided to share it. While Stark's keeper had promised that it would be, he had originally been quite skeptical, although Jarvis repeatedly claimed that he would not share any of Loki's private writings even with Stark.

And yes, Loki had been around enough double speak in the court that he did not miss the way the curious way that statement was worded. Not only did he not miss it, he in fact made great use of it over the next several months. And in honesty, knowing the man much better now, if he had knowledge of it Loki did not think that Stark had the mental filters to resist mentioning at least something concerning Loki's writings. So Jarvis and Ms. Potts seemed to have kept their word.

"What would you like to see this morning Mister Odinson?" Jarvis asked after he had finished breakfast and headed over towards the laundry room.

"What is left to view on the current Open Course Ware class from MIT Jarvis?" Loki asked as he placed his keyboard and drawing pad on top of several bags of towels that were first in line. He waited patiently for Jarvis to open the door to the laundry room and pulled that bin into the room, setting his hardware carefully on one of his work tables in case he needed to make some notes.

The god was well aware that his patience seemed to have more of a chemical than natural nature these days, but he considered this to be a small trade off when balanced against the reduction of nightmares and panic attacks.

Or they could also be reduced because the availability of Midgard's science almost in its entirety served as an excellent distraction, mental stimulus and quite often, source of amusement. Something that would definitely not been available to him on Asgard and especially not in an Asgard prison. Although from his reading, he had learned it would apparently not have been something he could have readily accessed in a Midgardian prison either. So in many way he was fortunate to be where he was… Not that he would ever admit that to anyone.

OoooO

"So Ms. Potts will not be coming to dinner again? At all?" Loki said looking over at Tony after he had subjected the Tony's living room to a surreptitious once over. His actions having the air of 'It's Friday and I'm here, so Ms. Potts should surely be here too'. Which made sense since Pepper after missing the first few had made a real effort to work her schedule since she had instigated the godly dinners almost a year ago.

Not that the god had seen a lot of either one of them over the last few months. The dinners had gotten a bit sporadic with either Tony convalescing or Pepper trying not to glow when Tony pissed her off. But he was feeling a lot better now, physically anyhow, and Pepper was cured, so that was good. Especially since she was aggravated at him again, this time for good she claimed. But she'd said that before…

So while he was hurting from Pepper leaving him, and had done his obligatory three day drunk down in the lab, at least this time it wasn't from anything stupid that Tony had done. That meant he had a better than decent shot at a second chance. And hell even if that didn't work out he and Pepper had parted friends, so he wouldn't lose her completely. What he was feeling right now was kind of a coming and going sort of pain. And a coming and going sort of hope. This pretty much meant he was mostly feeling normal with the occasional dash of miserable, confused and or hopeful. But at least tonight he wasn't feeling hung over, so he counted that as a triumph of sorts.

But as mixed up as his feelings were concerning Pepper, Tony couldn't help but be a bit amused at the god's confusion. While the god's tone and expression were just that of a semi-interested person asking a question of marginal interest he could tell that Loki was upset.

When Tony wondered had he become experienced in the area of all things mood related in 'Bag of Cat's' land? Perhaps some of Pepper's people skills had rubbed off on him?

"Sure she will Rudolf, just not as often. But hey, you and I can still have dinner once a week." Granted he normally didn't have dinner with Loki unless Pepper was available. But since that wasn't going to be happening any time soon, and maybe not for a really long time, Tony would have to be much more of a dick than he is to totally discontinue the one thing that Loki gets to do that resembles normal activity. Besides, he was pretty funny guy, in a stuck up snarky kind of way.

"We'll just have to change it to Thursdays or something, that way if Pepper wants to come she can and everyone stills has their Fridays free…" Tony's voice caught as he realized what he was inferring.

"Fridays free?"

"Date night," Tony said shortly, his tone not inviting any additional questions on that Midgardian tradition. Not that he thought Pepper was going to run right out an date… But she most likely would increase her event appearances. She always did.

But there were no additional questions. The shadow of confusion on Loki's face only lasted an instant until it was chased away by understanding. Understanding which in itself only lasted a second before that turned to irritation as the god finally understood that Pepper and Tony were no longer a couple.

"By the nine Stark," the god hissed stalking irritably into the living room before spinning around again to face Tony.

That surprised Tony a bit, since if you had asked him about it, he'd of bet good money that the god would have been overjoyed that he and Pepper were no longer engaged. After all, now he could and make Tony's life even more of a hell than it already was without worrying about getting on Pepper's bad side. Heck, she might even be amused. She generally was when they both got into it, even if she did shut them down pretty quick.

"What did you do?" Loki demanded irately, accusing green eyes locked upon his brown ones.

"Nothing, honest it wasn't me this time," Tony replied automatically standing behind the big breakfast island unloading takeout containers before the realization kicked in that he didn't have to explain himself to Loki. Hell if he didn't explain it to himself; he certainly wasn't going to wade into the deep treacherous waters of his and Pepper's on and off again relationship with a freakily tall pain in the ass.

Tony had fully expected the first dinner he and Prince Pain in the Patootie had without Pepper to be a total crap-fest. But it wasn't really. It was just a bit sad, the billionaire was mourning more the idea of a Pepper relationship, because honestly he'd pushed her away in the past and it was just payback for her to do it to him this time. While Loki was mourning the absence of the one person on Earthgard that had actually grown to like him, as surprising as that might have been.

But then Pepper always was a sucker for really well-mannered men. Not that that had ever inspired Tony to try harder in that department. Maybe if it had…

Anyhow, without Pepper to insist that they sit at the table, he and the god instead scattered all the take out boxes on the living room coffee table with a pile of disposable plates, napkins and cutlery; ate Thai, drank beer and shared their favorite Pepper stories… Which Tony had a lot more of naturally.

At one point while Loki was absent mindedly picking out all the red pepper strips from his Gai Pad Pongali, Tony leaned over and whispered, "Just eat it Slim Shady, you know how Pepper hates when you pick at stuff and make a mess."

Loki actually stirred the chicken and onions bits back in and took a bite before he remembered that Tony couldn't squeal on him to Pepper because Pepper wasn't here.

"Very funny Stark," he conceded giving him a halfhearted glare.

"Yeah, I thought so too," Tony said with a smirk before passing him another Sankaty Light lager as a peace offering.

After they ate and cleaned up Tony couldn't think of any conversational gambits that he was up for this evening.

Normally after dinner, they talked for a while and then once Loki had left Tony and Pepper would watch a movie. So it was like a tradition now. And having left his lab, cleaned up and eaten a real meal rather than drinking one Tony wasn't much in the mood to return to work so he was going to watch a movie, Pepper or no Pepper. And the god was welcome to stay if he wanted to.

"So, Dasher, you want to stick around and watch a movie? Maybe have a few more beers?"

Not that Tony cared if he did or not mind you. He was after all a grown adult and could watch a movie by himself if he had to.

Loki eyed him for a few moments. "What kind of movie?" he asked suspiciously.

Apparently the god had not been fond of some of Tony's Thursday evening selections over the last few months.

"Well certain not one of those lame ass documentaries you like to pick." Tony grinned, having occasionally scanned Jarvis' records of the god's viewing habits. "Heck anything I've picked is better than those."

The god rolled his eyes, "Oh yes, because 'Indiana' looking for a crystal skull, was the pinnacle of storytelling achievement."

"You know it." Tony said with a smirk.

Hey Tony liked Harrison Ford and the Indiana Jones franchise. However even he had to admit that besides Marian's return nothing else in that particular movie was worth watching. Not that he would admit that to the Rock of Ages.

In the end they decided to compromise and honor the missing Pepper by watching something she would have liked. Not that Loki has any clue what that would have been.

And if Tony was beside himself with amusement at the idea of the Asgardian's reaction to his first 'Chick Flick', well it did promise to be pretty funny.

"What do you suggest Jarvis?"

"Well sir, Ms. Potts was always partial to 'Two Weeks Notice'," the AI said. "She particularly enjoyed the part where Ms. Bullock tells Hugh Grant she's quitting."

Tony rolled his eyes, "Funny Jarvis. I think we'll pass on that one."

"Well she also likes Brokeback Mountain, shall I load that one for you sir?"

"Oh fuck you Jarvis," Tony snapped, sliding a sidelong glance at Loki. "I think maybe we should pass on that one too in the interest of inter-tower peace. Look, just put Music and Lyrics on, 'cause I don't think I can take any more of your helpful suggestions tonight."

Because Pepper did love her some Hugh Grant. Tony's best present ever to her was the American Foundation for AIDS Research charity dinner that he wrangled them seats at the same table as both Grant and Sandra Bullock. Okay so it was Jarvis who pointed out the opportunity when the organizers approached him, but it was Tony that paid for the table, with a premium for picking the celebrities that joined them. Not that a guarantee of his presence wasn't part of the deal Jarvis had cut with the charity, 'cause he too could draw a crowd.

At any rate, it was amusing to watch as the god of really bad decisions sat with furled eyebrows trying desperately to understand various pop cultural references. The movie took forever to watch between Tony's explanations, rewinding the movie so the god could re-watch the parts that were just explained to him and Rudolf's pithy commentary on some of the personal interactions made him laugh so hard they had to pause the damn thing several times. Making it way more of a hoot to watch than Tony remembered. Next week they were planning on watching something action combat related so Tony could make fun of their weaponry and Loki could snark at their tactics.

Whoa, had Tony made plans to do it again next week? Yeah. Yeah he did. But a while later when Tony was alone, he reflected that having company meant Pepper's absence hadn't hurt as bad as he thought it would.

OoooO

While he missed the conversations he normally had with Ms. Potts, Loki was enjoying having dinner's with Stark by himself more that he thought possible. He had found out that without an audience to act up in front of, Stark was actually decent company.

Of course the fact that he seemed to be at least making an effort to be agreeable to Loki helped a lot. For instance it had been a surprised when Stark reframed from badgering him about other realm knowledge in the interests of keeping their evening cordial. even to the point of not following up on nuggets of information purposely dropped while watching a bunch of Saga's about the 'Federation of Earth' and a character called Spock who spouted the most laughable rubbish that Loki had ever heard and called it science.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Stark I am positive."

"I don't know man; you could totally be his kid. I mean look at him. You guys share the same build, hair, hell you both have the whole high cheek bone and no humor what so ever thing going on. I'm willing to bet money that the Enterprise had a port call in Asgard."

"Except for the fact that I am older than him and I have a marvelously developed sense of humor, it's just that few people appreciate it."

"Yeah well okay. If you're sure," Tony had finally allowed before asking, "You going to eat that last fish taco or can I have it?"

OoooO

There is nothing Tony loves more than a car show. And while he also loves the crowds fawning all over him, he sometimes enjoys getting away from them by going to the VIP early afternoon sponsor event. That way he can see the new cars up close, without a bunch of pushy people getting in his way. Granted he gets all the attention he wants when he asks a question No matter how busy it is, but at the preview no one is breathing down his neck or crowding him. Besides knowing the people at the preview can afford dozens of new cars, the vendors put their most knowledgeable reps and their prettiest booth babes out during this select viewing time. So instead of some smarmy salesman he actually gets to talk to people who stone cold know all the specs on the cars he is looking at. And of course when he tires of looking at hand crafted leather seats, he can cast his gaze on other fine seats some of them also in clad in soft leather. And very few of them seeming to wear underwear.

Like that chick with the strange colored eyes smiling at him from the other side of the display, which Tony decides to stop and spend some time at. After talking to the Jaguar rep and of course checking out the cars displayed while Shortbabe smiled and chatted with them both Tony eventually released his rep to go deal with another potential customer that Tallbabe came over and informed him of.

"Say, how would you like to come over and watch some movies at my place tonight?" he asked the shorter of the two brunettes, the one with the gorgeous cinnamon colored eyes. Having picked up chicks at this venue before and Tony knows that once the VIP preview closes at six she should be free until the next afternoon. "A little wine, a little takeout, a few movies, maybe something fun to do afterwards?" he grinned artlessly, looking out over the top of his Bentley Platinum sunglasses, which he of course wore in honor of the car show.

Cinnamon did a little almost involuntary bounce, which was very nice and extremely picturesque. "Really? Oh my gosh, I would love to Mister Stark," she beamed with a wide luscious smile and those great looking eyes of hers all lit up…Until she looked over at her fellow booth babe.

"Problem?" Tony asked smiling.

"Let me guess, you're her ride?"

"No."

"Well yes."

"Ummm, not exactly…," she said, trying to paste the happy face back on, but not doing so well with her eyebrows puckered in consternation.

Tony wasn't too worried; he still had time to revisit a few more booths. However he really did find the whole eyebrow thing too cute for words. Then apparently trying to think of a way to make this evening happen, she bit her bottom lip a bit.

_Damn_

Okay, he was going to fix this because he was definitely going to fuck this one tonight. No ifs, ands or cute jersey clad asses about it.

"Tell me what the problem is, I bet we can work it out."

"We didn't book a room in the city for tonight. We were going to rent a car and drive out to Yonkers and get a room there. Since we're in the area we booked a portfolio shoot in the morning at the Untermyer Gardens."

She and her friend exchanged glances, information flowing with every twitch of their well-shaped brows.

"So you two work together a lot?"

"Sort of…" the taller babe said in a dubious tone that indicated that it might not be the kind of work that Tony was thinking about.

Taller chick didn't really look too receptive to that idea, no matter how much money Stark had… And really the thought that even hadn't crossed his mind until then.

_Honestly. _

But Tony was a problem solving kind of guy and he wasn't going to let something fixable stand between him and chosen partner of the evening.

"Hey. I got an idea. My buddy's younger brother is kinda staying with me, tall good looking guy. Maybe you'd like to join us this evening too?" He said smiling at Tallbabe. "And then when you two are ready to leave I could have my chauffer or one of my security guards drive you wherever you want to go. Save you having to go through the hassle of renting a car and all that."

They looked at each other, seriously considering his offer, which didn't surprise him. Cinnamon really wanted to make this work and Tallbabe had to be considering that anyone hanging around with a billionaire was either rich, prettier than fuck or incredibly well connected.

Or more than likely a combination of two out of the three.

"Hang on a minute; I think I have an embarrassing picture of him or something on my phone."

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Explanation - **This is me trying not to be so lineal. The last section of chapter 20 indicated a time span occurring. Chapter 21 details stuff that happened during that time. This chapter denotes the things happened BEFORE Fury arrived.

The first section of this chapter (21) indicates the things that had happened during the time that Loki has spent using his internet access and writing.

The second section, Tony's narrative, also notes the passage of time long enough to for lots of things to have happened in IM3.

Possibly it is not working. What else could I have but in there to make it less confusing? I am trying to occasionally get away from the 'and then this happened, and then this happened...' pacing.

******OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes - **While I have another 80,000 words written, they aren't exactly finished chapters. Some are done but not polished, some are just scenes with the outline of what happens next. So... I am contemplating a hold once we get to the end of part one so I can finish the damn thing. It was an interesting experiment, but I am not sure I am a fast enough writer to keep it up. How do people do this? I am in awe of them.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


	22. Chapter 22 - Everything hitting the fan

**Chapter Summary**: It's been really strange the last few years... and now Tony has extra Fury to sprinkle on top.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

*** In need of a Beta Reader, one that can proof as well as critique plot would be wonderful. All my done ahead chapters were exhausted with the Christmas Gift Postings. I have other chapters that need Beta'd but don't want to overwhelm the wonderful Wildberries. If you can help, please email me m2143343668 hot mail . com (remove extra spaces) I am in the states and have Verizon as my carrier.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

The Fury part of this was the chapter that started this fic. I really need to quit worrying about back story. *sigh*

I am pathologically unable to just write something that has no underpinning and tell the readers to just 'wing it okay?'. It's a sickness I tell you, I need help.

What was worse is that Chapter One/Tony at the Charity Auction was the only place I saw this beginning. I did say this was slow build, so I regret nothing there. Please see end notes on where and when this is going from here.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**Chapter 22 - Everything is Hitting the Fan**

Tony texted Jarvis to send him a picture of Loki from the security vids of a recent dinner.

"He didn't want to come to the car show with you?" Cinnamon asked the delighted smile stealing back over her features.

"Naw, he isn't into cars, but he couldn't have come anyhow. He's got into a bit of trouble so he is doing the whole Martha Steward home-bound thing. Since I'm a friend of the family he's staying with me. His father's a pretty powerful guy and not real happy with the whole ankle jewelry bit, so his mom arranged it for him to use my address."

Tallbabe looked like she was having a few second thoughts no matter what pleading looked Cinnamon was tossing her way when Tony's phone chimed, he pulled up the pic and held it out for them. "This is him. I knew I had a picture somewhere."

Tallbabe looked impressed; Tony could tell she was wavering so he decided to help her a bit.

"Did I tell you he's British?"

OoooO

"So ladies," Tony gestured expansively as the door to his private elevator opened. This is my humble little abode. As expected the babes were pretty awed by his digs.

"Tell you what, why don't I let you guys drop your stuff off in the guest room and freshen up a bit and while you're doing that, I'll order us some food, find us a movie and track down Lorin."

Tony ushered them down the second hallway and opened the door to his first guest room. There are supplies in the bathroom if you don't want to fuss with opening up your bags," he said. A moment later he popped his head back in the still open door catching them in middle of a silent celebratory bounce. His eyes crinkling with his smile.

"Oh, hey. I'm thinking Italian or Mexican, either of you have a preference?"

A short discussion later, Tony shut the door behind him and headed back towards the living room. "Jarvis Mexican for eight okay, get it from that La Palapa place? Make sure to get at least one order of that duck dish they have. Oh, and no calamari dishes this time. His highness doesn't like the look or smell of them."

Per his text, Jarvis had alerted Loki to the plan and one extremely confused, good looking godling was waiting with the Minion bot in Tony's small, mostly unused, office.

"You brought me a female?" Loki cocked his head to the side, obviously not entirely understanding why Tony was doing this or what Tony might be expecting of him in return.

"Look it's a gift okay, not that you can keep her or anything and you certainly don't owe me anything it's not that kind of transaction for Christ's sake. Hell it's not even really a gift, since I don't own her and I'm certainly not paying for her, it's not like she is a whore or anything."

Tony waved his hands distractedly trying to make the god understand, which was going to be a really good trick, since Tony didn't really understand why he was doing it. Certainly it solved his problem of getting that Cinnamon chick in the sack tonight… but the odds of something going catastrophically wrong were high enough that they should have given even Tony cause to pause… And make him think this through just a bit more.

Should have, but didn't.

"Look, I'm a billionaire; I know her friend is going to sleep with me. You, you're just the annoying little shit brother who is staying here while on house arrest. If she asks, tell her Martha Stewart isn't the only one who got in trouble for insider trading, she'll understand what you mean."

Giving him a look of extremely limited patience Loki drawled, "Well that will make one of us Stark."

"Insider trading, stock markets, Martha Stewart? Ring any bells?"

Apparently not. Tony snatched up a tablet from the desk, opened a few windows and quickly googled the terms before slapping the tablet up against Loki's chest.

"Come on, I need to get changed, I can brief you through the door or something."

Pushing Loki ahead of him, Tony walked into his bedroom, kicked his shoes off, waving Loki to the couch before diving into the bathroom and calling out to the god, "Anyhow. If you want to get her in the sack you are on your own bud. No force, I hope I don't need to tell you Jarvis will alert me if there is any rough stuff."

Not bothering to look up from the tablet he was studying Loki huffed. "Please Stark; do you have any idea how long I have been convincing maidens to lose their clothes and their inhibitions? For much longer than you have been alive I assure you."

"Good. So no worries there." Tony decided he needed a quick touch up shave.

"Jarvis did you and Loki have the safe sex talk yet like I asked you to?"

"Yes sir."

Several minutes later Tony came out of the bathroom, patting his freshly shaved cheeks with the damp towel that was draped around his neck. "Look there are plenty of condoms in medicine cabinets of both guest bedrooms. If you get lucky under no circumstances go bare back. I'm pretty sure your mother would kill me if someone perused a paternity claim against you, besides I doubt if Odin wants any Earthgardian grandchildren. I would say use the bedroom at the end of the hallway, that way the girls have the first room to regroup in before leaving. Oh, and your name is Lorin, but don't give them a last name, say you wouldn't want to cause any more trouble for your family."

Tony turned towards his dresser and snagged a watch on a wide leather cuff from the tray on his dresser, he quickly buckled it on before unbuttoning and shucking his shirt and throwing it towards his closet entrance.

"It's all good," he assured the god before pulling a fresh Metallica t-shirt out of his dresser skinning into it.

He looked over and saw that Loki had raised a neat eyebrow and was shaking his head at Tony's fashion choices.

"Just worry about your own looks there Dasher," Tony said his lip quirking lopsidedly as he smoothed his t-shirt down and headed towards the door. Just before he got there he stopped and turned towards Loki.

"Oh and good luck Silver Tongue, I hope you enjoy yourself."

OoooO

If Tony had been worried that Tallbabe was going to be a bit difficult, those fears were laid to rest about two minutes after the ladies showed back up in the living room.

Stepping forward with a warm smile Loki said, "How lovely to meet you both, my name is Lorin."

It turned out that Cinnamon's name was Cynthia and Tallbabe was actually Grace. Which naturally the oily bastard went with, murmuring, "Of course it is," as a delicate tint rose to her cheeks.

"Tony," he purred, "perhaps while we are waiting for dinner, the ladies would like to go out on the patio for a few minutes." He turned back to them and confided, "Tony has the most wonderful view of the city at sunset, truly a sight not to be missed."

"You know what, that's a great idea." Tony agreed holding out a hand to Cinnamon, drawing her closer and putting his other arm around her waist.

Loki held out one arm, gesturing towards the terrace as he widened his eyes inquiringly. He smiled warmly down as Grace tossed him up a smile and let herself be guided along behind Tony and her friend.

And if there was an ice breaking strategy to standing out on the cool-ish patio watching a gorgeous sunset while the breeze picked up, well hey it worked, Tony thought contentedly. By the time the sun was fully down and the city lights had taken over, Cinnamon was firmly tucked against his side with her arms around his waist, while Tallbabe had backed up to Loki's chest and pulled his arms warmly around her.

OoooO

Woken by the soft tapping on the bedroom door, Loki lifted his head a moment, trying unsuccessfully to blink sleep away. He heard low female voices, a few scuffles as clothes were gathered in the dim morning light and then soft lips found his and brushed against them with a pleased murmur. A brighter slice of light leaked in from the hall way through the slightly opened door, Grace's well curved body disappeared through it closing the door quietly behind her.

_Doubtless I should get up now, _Loki thought languidly, warm contentment still pooled in the pit of his stomach.

But the bed was so comfortable and he was so pleasantly tired from the sweetest activity he could remember in years. Even though it was morning; Loki just couldn't bring himself to let this evening end yet. I'll just give the ladies enough time to shower and leave before I go out in the hall he decided.

Smiling into the pillow he clutched Loki let his eyes drift shut as sleep claimed him again.

OoooO

Tony was a problem solver. He'd solved lots of them the Ten Rings, Obie betraying him, Vanko's attack, an alien invasion, a Nuke launched towards New York, Loki's containment, Pepper's Extremis exposure, his shrapnel problem… Actually pretty much anything life has thrown him the last five years or so. He still had a few he was working on like mainstreaming his arc reactors, keeping SHIELD off Bruce's ass, convincing a his captive god to play nice with Rainbow Bridge info, which was not pimping for science no matter what it looked like, converting his old family manor into quarters for the Avengers, and keeping enough innovations moving through the pipeline to keep Pepper happy. The last one of course being a never ending story, which he totally did not do trying to get back on her good side. Or at least stay off her bad side.

_And Pepper wonders why I don't sleep much._

"Sir, Director Fury and seven SHIELD agents are in the lobby. Several of the agents are quite heavily armed. Director Fury seems very upset wants to speak to you immediately."

SHIELD also went into his never ending story file. They were always yammering about something they wanted him to do or to fix or to pay for. Tony Stark was a genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist. He was also dead tired, slightly hung over and frustrated as hell with the progress on his current innovation. So of course this would be the day that Fury decided to come visit him over whatever stupid thing had the one-eyed freak's panties in a twist this week.

Crap.

"Jarvis, give me a visual will ya?" Tony asked him tiredly, closing down the files he had been working on.

Jarvis obligingly flashed video from three angles of the lobby onto Tony's work screens.

Okay. This was different. "Seriously Jarvis? Heavily Armed? The only thing they're missing is a tank."

"Stark, I know you're watching this by now." The bald headed, dark skinned, eye patched Director of SHIELD bellowed. "Open this god damn elevator before I blow this building and your punk ass sky high."

Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph this is all I fricking need right now.

Disgusted to the point of reciting a litany remembered from the elderly housekeeper they had when Tony was a child; he dug his cell phone out of his pocket. Yes, he could have used Jarvis to make the call, but there was something so soothing about screaming into a handset. Besides, he did not need Fury yelling at the ceiling of his building lobby and creating more of a scene that all the armed goons were already making. It was crap like this that made his conversations with Pepper testy.

Tony watched the screen as Renegade by Styx began to play in his lobby. It took a minute for Fury answer, mainly because that wasn't one of the ring tones he had programmed into his phone.

"Stark, I have told you before not to mess with my ring tones," the director snarled into his phone.

"Yeah. Yeah, ya did. But why should I listen to you when you never listen to me. I have told you before not to bring your flying monkeys into my building. Except for Coulson, I allow the head monkey access because he such a sweetie and I am just that kind of nice guy." Tony drawled in an amused tone that was finely calculated to make Nick Fury's blood pressure spike.

"Open the damn elevator Stark," demanded Fury.

"Nope, not going to happen until you get rid of your gun toting flunkies. You and Coulson, that's it. No one else." Tony replied firmly.

Fury stared sourly into one of the camera pickups for a moment before snapping his phone shut and giving Coulson instructions in super-secret spy sign language. It didn't take long before there was only Fury, Coulson and one other non-bazooka totting agent, who was sent to go stand by the doors leading out to the street, left in his lobby. Since there was no reason to guard those doors, the extra agent's presence was a _'you can't tell me what to do'_ gesture on Fury's part.

Tony briefly debated hanging tough for the whole '_There Can Be Only Two'_ rule. However since all the other agents who left also got into transportation and left the area entirely in a SHEILD show of good faith, Tony decided to extend his own small olive branch by letting SHIELD uselessly guard one of his tower's lobby doors.

"Jarvis, bring them up to the entertainment floor with the main elevator, lock all the entrances to anywhere else on my floors, definitely make sure our 'special guest' area is secure and look sharp, I don't want any assassins roaming around in my duct work, I don't want any bugs planted in the elevator or anywhere else."

"I understand sir."

The reason Tony chose to receive them on the entertainment floor was that it contained mostly futuristic Charles and Ray Eames hard surfaced furniture, lots of open area and a polished stone floor. While beautiful, it was a sparse area, easy to clean after a big party and had almost nowhere that bugs could be planted and stay undetected.

From the lopsided smirk on Fury's face, Tony was pretty sure he knew why there were meeting here, rather than his personal space.

"Hey guys," Tony called from behind the bar, "You want anything to drink?" he asked, keeping his tone light and friendly but not really putting any effort into making them believe he was in a '_good buddy'_ mood.

As usually with those two the answer was no, so Tony pointed to a seating area and wandered over to sit across from the area indicated. Also as usual, Fury sat and Coulson stood beside the couch in attendance on the dictator.

Director.

_Whatever._

"So," he said, putting down his little mid-day pick-me-up, which he had no intentions of drinking while they were in his tower. "To what do I owe the honor of your visit?"

"I want to know why an MIT student, has been trying to hack a Stark Industries servers looking for information on self-published books that are being sold on Amazon, iBookstore and Barnes & Noble. His area of interest was a clever little physics publication; but he was also gathering information on all the books from put out by the vanity publisher, LSWalker LLC.

"Gosh Nick. I'm not sure what to tell you, I normally can get a real publisher. Hell, Engineering News Record and Connected World are always bugging me to submit articles to them or use their publishing branch for my authorized autobiography or something." Tony leaned back leering a bit at both men. "I mean Peggy Smedley of Connected World is a doll, and I do have a thing for smart brunettes, but I haven't really published since I got out of college. I am a big fan of the _'All my ideas make money so why give them away for free' _point of view, but they still try bless their hearts."

"I'm not talking dead tree editions Stark, these are all in KF8 or DRM protected ePub format." Fury snarled as he leaned forward glaring at Tony so hard he almost needed another eye to channel his wrath.

Tony gifted him with a sweet smile as he pulled out his phone and started fiddling with it. Ah. Jarvis was of course on the ball and there was a lovely little synopsis of why Fury was currently darkening his door. Ever the consummate show man, Tony did not let the Jarvis' little surprise show on his face, but he made a mental note to weigh the pros and cons of disassembling all of Jarvis' servers this evening.

Tony hits a few of the links Jarvis provided, and skimmed those pages while waiting for Fury to get done glaring at him. Of course the reason for Fury's visit would have to be the cause of one of Tony's persistent irritations and potential disaster in waiting, because that was just how his luck ran these days.

Sheesh.

"So. Coulson. How's it hanging for you these days? I do hope Big Daddy One Eye isn't tiring you out too much after your miraculous return from the grave." He asked, trying to shift the conversation to a different topic while twisting the knife a bit. He was still pretty peeved that Fury had lied and manipulated them using Coulson's 'death'.

Standing beside Fury, hands folded neatly in front of him, Coulson regarded the engineer as expressionless as ever. "Well Stark, except for all the extra reading I have had to do the last few days, it's going well thank you." The well-ordered agent cocked his head slightly. Tony noticed just the faintest shine of silver in the brown that hadn't been there before Coulson's little heli-carrier adventure.

"I must say," Coulson continued with an approving little nod, "That the books I have been reading are certainly much better written than your normal self-published fare, particularly the dissertation of the advantages and disadvantages of absolute rule as a political model."

Okay, Tony thought. Obviously, I am not going to be able to pull a topic shift, at least not until I get whatever message Nicky is trying to lay down.

"Great, glad to hear you've been able to relax with a good book." Tony laughed a little self-deprecatingly, "I don't often do but I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Coulson said.

Of course you wouldn't. My luck isn't that good today.

Coulson continued, "It's not easy to relax when you have a bunch of SHIELD's best scientists yammering at you every minute of the day to find the author of a publication."

_Seriously?_

Tony couldn't help but smirk. "So what's so hard about that, you guys are spies for heaven's sake, finding people is what you do."

Coulson stuck his lower lip out a bit, with a little inclination of his head to show agreement, but before he could reply Fury jumped in.

"You would think wouldn't you? Unfortunately Stark, the author is using a pseudonym. Since there is no address or contact information for the publisher besides a blind email drop and a post office box. Also, there are stylistic indications that all of the books are being ghost written with the same co-writer, since which means someone has contacted at least one of the publisher's employees somehow. We of course did attempt to contact the other authors that publish with LSWalker, but they all appear to be pseudonym's also. Or at least the people we can track down with matching names are definitely not the people who wrote the books."

Fury's mouth twitched up on one side in an evil parody of a smile. "And just when we are at a standstill, one of our white hat informants clued us in on someone attempting to get into Stark Industries computers. And that investigation leads us, by way of the barn, to you."

"Me?" Tony scoffs, "You think I am writing all these books you are interested in?"

Fury just glares at him, but Coulson actually has an expression, which Tony is pretty sure is against the SHIELD policy.

"Actually Stark," says old Mister Smug Face Coulson, "I'm hoping you didn't, because if you did… Well, that tells me more about you than I want to know, which is a problem since I'm supposed to already know everything about you." Coulson looked like he was having a hard time not laughing. "But if you did write them, Agent Hill and some of the bridge crew really want to talk to you about when a sequel is going to be out for your last… Bodice ripper, 'Pacific Island Pleasure'.

It was days like today that made Tony wish that ten years ago he had bought and retired on a pacific island. As a recluse. A drunk one. Tony's phone chirped and he glanced down at it. Tony wanted to groan, but he settled for raising a brow quizzically and glaring up at Coulson.

"You're shitting me right?"

Maybe he won't wait until they leave for that drink.

"I wish the fuck he was," growled Fury tossing a pissed look over his shoulder at his number one agent. "Somebody," he growled, "Was overheard talking about the story by a member of the bridge crew. By the next day several agents on the damn shift had ordered and downloaded it. By the end of that day, a dozen more of them were either trying to borrow readers from their friend that already owned it or planned to buy their own copy.

Tony idly tapped his phone screen a few times, before picking up his drink and taking a large swallow. Hey, he deserved it.

"Which brings us back to you Stark," Fury's lips thinned in displeasure. "How is it that the profits for all the books from this publisher go to this shiny new LLC, which then blindly deposits the money in a bank account that occasionally pays for things that get delivered to your tower?"

Okay, not good, but not impossible, he was Tony Fucking Stark after all and he could bullshit his way out anything.

"Well, well, well. Apparently I have some very enterprising employees here." Tony said pensively as he stroked his thumb across his goatee. "I wonder if it is the ladies in the cafeteria or the human resources department." He laughed at Fury's goaded expression. "Hey it shows good team work that they could get together on something like this, all that in-service training that we do is obviously paying off."

"Stark…"

Shaking his head dismissively, Tony chided the director. "Oh, come on. What's being ordered? Bomb parts? Drugs?" He perked up facetiously and asked with a mocking lilt, "Hookers?"

Fury huffed as Coulson consulted a small note pad before replying. "No Stark no hookers, which is one of the things that made me think maybe it wasn't you."

Tony's face instantly darkened, "Hey!" He growled, irritated at Fury's number one boy, "You know I don't pay for it."

"Sure you do Stark; you just use opportunity instead of money." Coulson said calmly looking down at Tony.

Fury snorted and curled his lip up at Tony's outraged huff.

It's an odd list, and if it weren't for all the science books being purchased on cd, I might buy the Cafeteria employees since the rest of the stuff is chocolate, candy, men's hiking socks and a pair of Wicked Good Slippers."

"Sir, I am afraid that Ms. Potts needs you in her office rather urgently. She said it's a matter of the utmost importance."

"Okay Jarvis, tell her I'll be right down." Tony stood up, draining the last of his drink and motioning them to the main elevator. "Well as always, it's been a blast guys. We'll have to do it again sometime when it won't cost me thousands of dollars in lost productivity to chat with you two."

"Stark, we aren't finished ye-"

"Yeah Nick we are. I apparently have employees who have decided to form a publishing company. They should have come to me, I'm sure I could have got them better deal and free publicity. But ya know what; I admire the fact that they wanted to do it on their own, shows initiative." He ushered the two SHIELD agents towards the main elevator.

"Starrrk…."

"And it shows a lot of teamwork, maybe not too many brains but… Whatever…"

"Whoever wrote the physics book must have brains, it has all our scientists in an uproar." Fury said coldly.

"So one of the cafeteria staff maybe talked one of our engineers into publishing with them. And not to start a fight or anything Nicky, but your guys would get excited watching Bill Nye the Science Guy," Tony said studiously ignoring Coulson's skeptical look.

"Jarvis, call up my private elevator."

Skepticism flitted across Fury's face as Tony all but shoved them in the main elevator. Fury stopped abruptly, right in the way of the doors and glared down at Tony, mouth tight with aggravation. "That was a decent snow job Stark, but I suggest you rethink this." As Tony opened his mouth to retort, Fury continued, "I will be especially interested in which department your cafeteria ladies recruited a writer who was an expert in Norse History and Myths." Fury took step back.

"I want to debrief that one too, when you figure out who it is." Fury said as the elevator doors closed.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

**End Notes -**

And... this is pretty much where I have to pause the story. I totally am hating not having the rest finished and I want to do that before I post anymore. I have a lot already written, but I have a lot of gaps too.

I decided over Christmas to rip the bandage off and post most of what was finished over the holidays as an apology for the pause before the rest is posted. I'm hoping a few weeks, but we will see. I just don't like being able to go back and trim or tighten stuff because then it won't mesh with what is already posted.

When I do finish it, I want to post several chapters a week, so I hope you'll keep an eye out for the rest. I am particularly looking forward to posting Tony's meeting with Odin. Oh.. and Mortal Nip.

I already have another 60,000 words for the second half, so I do hope that if you haven't Followed yet, you take a chance on the back side and Follow now. Thanks so much to all who have commented, Fav'd and Followed.

**OoooO OoooO OoooO OoooO**

As always comments and reviews are greatly appreciated, if you aren't a comment or review kind of person then Favs and Follows would be wonderful. They all help the story placement on the search engine. **Many thanks to my faithful commenters and of course to all that have Fav'd and Followed in the past.**

Beta'd by the most wonderful Wildbearies. Many, many thanks for your assistance.

I don't own the Avengers or Thor, they are the property of Marvel and Disney, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.


End file.
